Camp Waterford
by Scosh81
Summary: Gibbs team gets sent to Camp Waterford for a week of teambuilding. Tiva and possible McAbby
1. Chapter 1

"You are not serious." Gibbs growled at NCIS director Leon Vance.

"Afraid so Gibbs. Team building is a mandatory exercise required by all NCIS teams and yours is no exception. You will do this or I will be forced to submit a complaint to the secnav and more then likely break up your team."

NCIS director Leon Vance and team Leader Leroy Jethro Gibbs were standing in the director's office of NCIS clearly at an impasse.

"My team already works as a team." Gibbs answered in a dangerously low voice. "There is absolutely no reason to pull them off cases for a week to send us to some camp, so that we can do team building exercises. We're already a team." He insisted his voice starting to rise in volume a little.

"Look Gibbs, I don't make the rules." At Gibbs glare he amended his sentence. "I didn't make this rule. It's an HR requirement for all government teams and I need yours to go out and make an example."

Gibbs continued to glare at him.

"You don't have a choice Jethro. I expect your team to be there tomorrow morning. I also expect decent reports from the counsellors running the sessions. In addition to the team building exercises all partnerships are expected to attend at minimum three sessions of partner counselling so it's up to you to make sure DiNozzo and David attend them."

Gibbs simply snorted at that one. "I don't envy that counsellor. It's a lot like mediating kindergarten kids."

"Well perhaps the partnership counselling can help with that." Gibbs just continued to glare at the director who finally allowed a smile to grace his face.

"Look Gibbs, if you go and do this with good scores, I'll allow you one 'defy the director' free card. But I expect good scores and David and DiNozzo must attend at least 3 sessions. They could probably benefit from more, but I'll leave it at 3."

Gibbs simply sighed and headed for the door. "You owe me for this." He muttered on his way out.

Leon Vance sat back down in his chair and smiled. He would almost like to be there to watch this. The idea of Gibbs playing games in the forest with his team was more then amusing. Of course this was right up Abby and DiNozzo's alleys and Ziva and McGee were competitive enough to join in with minimal complaints but to watch Gibbs playing games in the forest? Perhaps he could convince McGee to tape some of them.

Gibbs left the directors office in a bad mood. He couldn't believe that some idiot at a desk thought it would be a good idea to pull an entire team out of the field and dump them at some camp so that they could play games. He stopped at the top of the landing to stare at his team for a few minutes. Tony was obviously needling McGee about something and Ziva was simply watching with a smile on her face. He shook his head ruefully at the scene. They hadn't had a case in a few days and he could tell they were all getting bored. Perhaps a week in the woods was exactly what they needed. He shook his head again as he saw Tony launch something at Ziva's head and her get up to stand in his face and threaten him. Perhaps counselling wouldn't hurt.

He headed down the stairs to the bullpen noticing that whatever it was Ziva had threatened Tony with had obviously worked. Tony was back at his desk sulking while both Ziva and McGee had rather large smiles on their faces.

"McGee, call Abby up here. I have something I want to tell you."

The fact that Ziva and Tony exchanged worried glances was not lost on him. He decided not to acknowledge though, knowing their worry would be put to rest once he actually told them what was going on.

It wasn't long before Abby scurried into the bullpen in her usual black platforms.

"What's up Boss?" Tony finally asked.

"We're being assigned to go to Camp Waterford for a week of team building activities. Apparently the government thinks we need to bond."

"Seriously Boss?" McGee asked.

"No McGee, I made it up. Do you actually think I would make something like this up?"

"Uh, no sir, I just um"

"What the Probie means boss," Tony interrupted smoothly "is when are we going?"

"We have to be out there for tomorrow morning. 7 o'clock sharp. Make sure you dress appropriately. Abby that means no platforms. I have no doubt running through the woods will be involved."

Abby's entire face lit up like a Christmas tree. "Do we need to bring any camping supplies? Cause I've got lots of sleeping bags if anyone needs to borrow one."

"According to Vance we don't need to bring anything but the clothes we need. Everything else is provided." Gibbs answered as if he had something really bitter in his mouth. "We're getting marked on this so I expect you to all behave and to try your best at whatever it is that they're going to give us. We need to show that we can work like a team so that they don't force us to do this again."

"Would I be less of a man if I admitted that this sounds like fun?" DiNozzo asked the room.

Ziva simply looked at him and rolled her eyes. "Who will be working our cases while we are gone?"

"There's a backup team in place and they've hired a temp for Abby's lab." Gibbs answered.

Abby suddenly lost her enthusiasm. "I don't like when temps touch my stuff." She whined to Gibbs. "Can't they just borrow the FBI's lab or something? And how come Ducky and Palmer aren't coming?"

"Sorry Abbs no can do. The Temp has already been hired. As for Ducky and Palmer they'll be coming down for the last day. You would have only had to do one day as well, but apparently if we're sending a female there needs to be a minimum of two."

"So because Ziva is going I have to go?"

"Yep."

"Yeah, thanks Ziva." Abby enthusiastically wrapped Ziva in a big hug. Ziva merely patted her back.

"Go home." Gibbs finally commanded. "Get your stuff packed. I want to see you all there tomorrow morning at 7am sharp. I want no one to be late is that understood?"

A chorus of "Yes Boss." Assaulted him as he left the bull pen. He shook his head. Seems like his team was perfectly in sync to him.

"All righty then kids, this is going to be fun." Tony said to the room once Gibbs had left. "A week in the woods playing games, this could be better then a vacation."

McGee quickly headed back to his computer and started looking up the Camp Waterford. "It's 2 hours away."

"We should car pool." Abby chimed in. "It's better for the environment. Less global warming and all."

"I'm not spending two hours in a car with Tony." McGee quickly inserted. "Last time he kept yelling at women out the window."

"Well I don't want to ride with you either McNofun. I couldn't possibly stand to listen to your music for two hours."

"I'll ride with Tony." Ziva finally offered. "He can't yell at women out the window if he has one in the car."

"Is that a challenge officer David?" Tony quickly replied.

"I'll ride with Timmy then." Abby quickly interceded. If those two got going there was no telling what would happen. It was better to cut them off before they issues some crazy challenge.

"All right then it's all settled." Tony said. "I'll pick you up at 5 am crazy ninja Chick." He said to Ziva as he grabbed his stuff and headed out the door.

"Don't be late" she yelled after him conceding to let him drive. She knew there was no way she would win the argument to drive up there. Besides his car was bigger then her mini cooper. "I will see you two tomorrow." She uttered to Abby and McGee before grabbing her stuff and following Tony out the door.

Abby and Timothy just grinned at each other before also grabbing their stuff to head out. It was going to be an interesting week.


	2. The Drive

The next day dawned earlier then anybody would have liked. As per their agreement Tony showed up at Ziva's place the next morning with a grin and a cup of coffee.

"Good Morning Sweet Cheeks; are you ready for a fun filled week of team building?" He asked while grabbing her suitcase as she locked her door.

"This is a waste of time yes? We would be much more useful here in DC solving cases." She muttered not entirely pleased with the sequence of events.

"Well obviously." Tony answered while holding her suitcase away from her when she tried to grab it back and heading down the stairs. "That's half the fun. A week of frivolous team building for a team that's already built."

Ziva simply shook her head in exasperation. "I am perfectly capably of carrying my own suitcase Tony." She said dryly as she followed him down the stairs.

"I know that Zee, and I know that you know that. But what kind of gentleman lets a lady carry her suitcase down the stairs?"

Ziva snorted. "At what point in this partnership did you become a gentleman?"

Tony stopped walking and Ziva nearly ran into her. He turned around to give her a look. "I'm hurt Zee." He said however there was a large smile on his face. He quickly started back down the stairs.

Ziva's heart had stopped for a minute. He had given her _the _look. Over the years she had seen pretty much every look he had. And the one he had given her was by far her favourite. It was guaranteed to cause a hitch in her breathing and her heart to start beating a little faster. The down side was she was fairly certain he knew she particularly liked that look, and of late she noticed he was using it more and more often.

The rest of the trip down to the car was silent. They had been partners long enough that even Tony didn't feel the need to fill the silences anymore. He quickly walked around to her side and opened her door before stowing her suitcase in the trunk. Ziva slid into the car and mused that a year ago he wouldn't have bothered to open her door at all and gave a brief thought to what had changed before he got into the drivers side and started the car.

The first hour of the drive was silent as both agents were tired and neither felt the need to make small talk. Ziva had closed her eyes and was dozing slightly letting Sinatra wash over her.

Tony for the most part kept his eyes on the road, but every now and then would let his gaze wander to his dozing partner. He couldn't help but remark that when she let her guard down she looked amazingly approachable and not at all like the sometimes scary Mossad agent she was. He also knew that her dozing while he drove was a sign of complete trust. With anyone else she would probably be wide awake and watching everything. He had the strangest temptation to reach out and tuck her hair behind her ear; however he resisted thinking that he wanted to keep his hand. She was fairly hard to read, and while he thought that perhaps he might have gotten away with it while she was awake, her reflexes kicked in way too easily when she was asleep.

"Why are you staring at me Tony?" Ziva finally asked eyes still closed as she could feel his gaze on her every few minutes.

"Uh, I was just trying to decide if you were actually asleep or if you wanted to stop through a drive through and grab something to eat." He quickly covered. There were some things she just was better off not knowing.

"I am not hungry, but stop if you want." She said finally opening her eyes and looking at where they were.

"I didn't mean to wake you. You can go back to sleep." He said, not wanting to be the reason she was cranky later in the day. A cranky Ziva was a dangerous Ziva, and if they wanted to get through this week alive, then he would do his best to not set her off this week.

"I am no longer tired." She said staring out the window of the car.

"Well how about we play a game then?" Tony asked with a grin. "We could play Eye Spy, or the license plate game. There's also the alphabet game."

Ziva turned to look at her partner and couldn't keep the amusement out of her eyes. "We are going to a camp to play games for a week and you want to play one on the car ride there?" she finally asked a hint of laughter in her voice.

"Well yeah." Tony replied defensively. "We still have another hour, and since I know how much we both love to tell personal stories I thought that a game might be a bit better. Are you afraid I'm going to beat you?"

Ziva rolled her eyes. "Yes Tony, I am afraid that you will beat me at a game where you make up the rules as we go. We both know there is no way I will win at one of your car games."

"Hey that's a little unfair. I don't make up the rules as we go. They're already pre-set. It's not my fault you don't know what they are. You can always call McGeek to double check if you think I'm cheating."

"I am not going to call Tim and interrupt his car ride with Abby to see if you are cheating." She said indignantly.

Tony's eyes narrowed as he processed what she said. "Wait, why don't you want to interrupt their car ride? What do you know that I don't?"

"I imagine the things that I know that you do not could fill multiple books." She responded mockingly.

Tony glared at her briefly before turning his eyes back to the road. "Har de Har Har. Officer David has turned into a comedian. Who knew?" he answered mockingly. His voice turned serious. "McGee and Abby? Really? Again?" he asked.

Ziva sighed. "How have you not noticed this Tony? You are a trained observer and yet sometimes you miss the most obvious things."

Tony briefly registered that she was talking about something else before going back to the previous subject. He didn't miss as much as she thought he did, but he wasn't going there now. "In McGee's case I've trained myself to not observe." He added in a light tone.

"I find that hard to believe. You have always been earsy."

"I think you mean nosey miss smarty pants. So then fill me in oh trained investigator. What are the signs I've been missing?"

Ziva shifted in her seat so that she had turned to face Tony. "Tim always makes up excuses to go down to the lab to see Abby."

"I thought he was just scared of you."

She continued as if he hadn't said anything. "Abby's face lights up like a Christmas tree whenever McGee walks into a room. He makes sure he brings her at least one Caf-Pow a day. He's gone to her concerts with her."

Tony gave a shudder at that one. He remembered the time they had lucked out of going to see Brain Matter. If McGee was going to her concerts then he had to concede that Ziva was on to something.

"Ok." He said. "I concede to your crazy ninja skills. If McGee is going to her concerts then there's probably something there."

Ziva gave a smug smile. "I did tell you so, yes?"

He rolled his eyes. "We're almost there. Can you please use your crazy ninja skills to dig the directions out of my glove box and navigate us the rest of the way please."

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Gibbs was annoyed. It was 7:01 and Tony and Ziva were still not there.

"Maybe they've stopped somewhere to make out." Abby offered. At the look from Gibbs she quickly shrank back towards McGee. "Not that they would ever do that, it's just that normally you can cut the tension between them with a knife, and they've been stuck in a car for two hours and…" she babbled trying to backtrack from her original comment.

"You know something about my agents I don't Abbs?" Gibbs growled.

"Uh, no. Maybe they just got lost." She finally said.

"It's Tony and Ziva." McGee intervened. "Of course they got lost. Someone's reading directions and someone is saying it's the opposite. An arugument will follow and someone gets hurt." He shrugged.

"If they don't get here soon they're going to need more then 3 counselling sessions." Gibbs offered.

"Counselling?" McGee and Abby both asked at the same time giant grins covering their faces.

"Partners have to have partner counselling while they're here. At least three sessions, although if they're not here in 5 min I'll make them do more."

McGee and Abby grinned at each other. The thought of Tony and Ziva in counselling was just too much. They would probably end up killing each other.

Just then, Tony's car pulled into the parking lot and a harried looking Ziva quickly got out and slammed her door muttering something in Hebrew. Tony looked no better, his hair, normally well gelled and perfectly in place looked like he hand been running his hands through it in frustration.

"Not my fault Ziva." He said loudly in exasperation.

"I told you to turn Tony. You did not listen." She hissed back. At this point they were standing an inch apart glaring into each other's faces. Gibbs quickly walked up and delivered a head slap to the back of both of their heads. Causing their foreheads to bump.

"You're late." Was all he said as he gestured for them to follow him.

They headed towards a large building where the words Camp Waterford were displayed on a rather large sign. They noted that the building looked more like a bed and breakfast then the camp they were expecting. Upon entrance they were greeted by a cute blond woman who introduced herself as Mary.

"You must be team NCIS." She smiled at them. "Welcome to Camp Waterford. We hope that while you're here you'll enjoy your stay and that you'll become closer as a team. We have several other teams with us here this week and you'll have the opportunity to interact with them. We even have a team competition at the end of the week to see who the closest team is." She shook all their hands lingering for an extra moment with Tony. Tony's grin got wider. "If you need anything," she said looking at him, "Please don't hesitate to call me."

"Oh I will." Tony stupidly answered and got an elbow to the gut from Ziva and a head slap from Gibbs. He noticed that Ziva looked a little upset and thought that maybe, just maybe this week would be even more fun then he had originally thought.

"You have the next couple of hours to settle into your rooms before our opening exercises." Marie continued. "I have you booked for two double rooms and one single. Which one of you wants the single?" Everybody looked at Gibbs, no one daring to suggest they get the single.

"That would be mine." Gibbs answered. He shuddered at the thought of sharing a room with one of his agents.

"All right then, here's your key, you're in room 208." She said handing Gibbs a key. "Now I assume it will be the women and the men in separate rooms?" Once again everybody looked to Gibbs.

"That'll be fine he said." That would be all he needed, he thought to himself, was for his agents to start shaking up during a team building exercise. He wasn't blind, he could see what was coming, rule 12 didn't mean anything to these people, but he wasn't going to promote it either.

"Ok, ladies you're in room 310 and men you're in room 311. You'll be just across the hall from each other." She said handing out the keys. "Now who are our partners?"

"That would be Ziva and I." Tony answered with a smile.

"Great." Marie answered. "What time would you like to sign up for counselling sessions?"

"Counselling sessions?" They echoed in horror.

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**A/N: So it's a lot harder to have two stories going then I thought it would be. This one kinda came to me as I'm writting the Stepford Killer and I thought this one would be fun and it's more light and upbeat. No serial killers in this one :) So I'm going to aplogize in advance if this one doesn't get updated all that often for now, I've only got a few more chapters to go on the other one and then I'll be able to devote more attention to this. Anyway I hope you're enjoying it!**

** -Kris**


	3. Friends

After Tony and Ziva had gotten over the horror of being told they were going to have to attend some counselling sessions (and after Gibbs had refused to let them out of them) they decided to go get the luggage and head back up to their room. Tony still being mildly irritated with Ziva however not completely willing to loose any brownie points he had earned that morning, quickly made a beeline to Abby's luggage offering to carry it up for her. Naturally McGee offered to carry Ziva's and a slight argument ensued when she insisted she could carry her own luggage. Finally Ziva relented knowing that McGee truly was trying to be a gentleman and not at all offering to take it out of concern that she couldn't.

The made their way up to their rooms, Tony struggling a bit with Abby's luggage. They finally made it to the women's room and cracked open the door, Tony barrelling in first.

"What on earth did you pack in here Abby?" asked Tony wishing that he had grabbed Ziva's luggage instead.

"I didn't know what we'd need Tony. We're here for a week, so I brought camping stuff as well as my normal clothes. And I may have packed a couple pairs of my platforms." She added with a grin. "You're a strong guy though so I knew you could handle it."

Tony merely grunted and McGee and Ziva just laughed. McGee was glad that Tony had grabbed Abby's luggage. Naturally Ziva was not an over packer and he had had no trouble at all bringing her luggage up the stairs.

"Wow." Abby said finally taking a look around her room. "This is much better then I expected." Each room was equipped with two double bed, two dressers, a mini fridge and a television. They had an adjoining bathroom and everyone was glad it was more like a hotel then the camp they had envisioned.

They dropped the girl's luggage and then headed across the hall to the guys room. "This is just like friends." Abby exclaimed excitedly. Tony grinned and McGee rolled his eyes. Ziva however was confused.

"Rooms across the hall are like friends? Why do friends need rooms across from each other?" she asked slightly puzzled.

"Friends is a TV show Ziva." Tony said opening the door and letting them in. "One that I'm surprised you haven't seen. They have to have that in Israel. It's been all over the world." He said shaking his head and looking at his partner. "We're so going to have to have a friends marathon when we get back."

Ziva simply rolled her eyes as she walked into the room. She was long since used to Tony and his marathons. If she was completely honest sometimes (all right most times) she actually enjoyed them.

The guy's room had been set up exactly like the girls. And it wasn't long before Tony had grabbed a bed and had turned on the TV. His face lit as he was flipping through the channels as McGee started to unpack. "Hey Ziva he said patting the spot on the bed next to him. Guess what I found on TV?"

"I could not possibly guess Tony. You have far too many television shows that are your favourite."

"It's friends." He exclaimed excitedly as she reluctantly sat next to him on the bed.

"Friends!" Abby cried coming over as well. "Shove over Ziva, I want to watch too." She said chuckling a little in her head as she forced Ziva to scoot over closer to Tony.

Tony grinned at Abby and casually threw his arm over Ziva's shoulders. The three of them were now outstretched on Tony's bed all reclining against the headboard. Tony and Abby started giving Ziva the run down of all the characters and the background she needed for this particular episode.

It wasn't long before McGee had finished unpacking and was reclining on his own bed as they continued to watch television. It was there that Gibbs found them an hour later.

"Comfortable?" he asked sarcastically as he entered the room. He took in the fact that Tony's arm was around Ziva's shoulders and lifted an eyebrow at his senior field agent. Tony simply shrugged his shoulders and with a grin said "there wasn't any room." Ziva rolled her eyes. However neither of them moved.

"We have to be downstairs for opening exercises." Gibbs finally said a tone of almost disgust in his voice. "We're supposed to meet the other teams."

It was this that had his team finally getting up and turning off the television.

"Do we know who else is here Boss?" McGee asked.

"Nope. Don't care either." Was Gibbs immediate response.

The team trouped downstairs and headed for the rec area where the opening exercises were to take place. They had entered the room cautiously looking around.

"You've got to be kidding me." DiNozzo groaned. "Really, agent Sacks has to be here? Cause I'd rather poke out my eyes then hang out with him."

His comments had Gibbs head whipping around towards agent Sacks. Sure enough Agent Fornell had a team there. Gibbs allowed a small smile to grace his face. "Think of how great the victory will be when we kick their ass." He said to DiNozzo and got a smile in return.

"That's true boss. I do love kicking FBI ass."

They started to head over towards Fornell as his team.

"Agent Gibbs." Fornell said with a nod. "I'm surprised to see you here. Normally you're much better at ducking out of these kinds of things."

"Good to see you too Fornell." Gibbs replied. "New administration." He said with a shrug of his shoulders. "Couldn't get out of this one." They shared a small smile. They each knew that they other had tried as hard as they could to be avoiding this particular event. It crossed each of their minds that perhaps they could find ways to ditch their teams and go get coffee.

"I'm sure you remember my team Fornell." Gibbs said gesturing to his team members.

"They've been a pain in my side too many times for me to have forgotten them." Was his response. "Let me introduce you to my Agents. I'm sure you remember Agent Sacks." He said pointing to sacks.

"Bastard." Tony muttered under his breath so that only Ziva could hear. She had to smile at that. She didn't particularly care for the agent herself.

"This is Agent Smith." He said gesturing to another agent. "He's our computer tech."

Agent Smith smiled at them, his gaze lingering on Ziva a minute longer then necessary. This had Tony automatically bringing his arm around his partner and giving Smith a hostile glare. Ziva decided to pretend to not notice. Agent Smith had set her hair on end, and while she was confidant she could take him if she had too, it was nice to know Tony had felt the same way.

Abby noticed the possessive gesture and smiled to McGee. "Tony's staking his claim." She whispered to McGee who had a grin on his face. Tony was going to hear about this later he decided.

"This is Agent Moore." Fornell continued pointing to a smallish agent. "He's our profiler."

"Great." Tony muttered into Ziva's ear. "He's going to be analyzing us all week."

"And this is Agent Johnson." Fornell concluded pointing to his final agent.

Gibbs simply nodded and for the sake of Fornell's team pointed to each of his own. "DiNozzo, David, McGee and Abby." He said in order.

Fornell gave him a confused look. "Why is Scuito here?"

Gibbs simply shrugged. "Needed another female."

It was then that their host from earlier in the day walked into the room. "Welcome Teams." She said with a smile. "Some of you may already know each other, and some of you may be strangers, by the end of the week we're hoping to change all that. One of the reasons we have so many teams here this week is to help with interagency cooperation. The government is hoping that if you know each other, you'll be more willing to help each other."

There were a few chuckles from the audience, and Gibbs and Fornell both snorted.

"Yeah, knowing them has really helped us in the past." Tony said to his team mates while gesturing to the FBI.

Mary continued, "Tonight we're just going to play some icebreaker activities to help you get to know each other, and at the end of the night, we'll let you know a little bit about the final competition at the end of the week. Remember that the team that wins that will have bragging rights for the next year."

Everyone in the room rolled their eyes. No one would be bragging about something they won at a team building camp.

"We're going to start off tonight's activities with the Human Knot." Mary said with a smile in her voice. I want you to get in groups of 20.

Tony and Abby grinned. Gibbs and Fornell looked on in horror. This was their biggest nightmare come true. It was going to be a really long week!


	4. The Human Knot

"McGee," Ziva whispered, "what is a human knot?"

"Gibbs worst nightmare." Was all he said before Mary was off and explaining the directions.

"I want you to get into groups 8 people." Team NCIS and team FBI eyed each other warily.

"Oh good." She exclaimed. Team NCIS and Team FBI have already formed a group. Could you please come to the front here and be my example team?"

Gibbs and Fornell both looked like they would rather chew on nails, however the corralled their groups up to the front of the room.

"Now I need you to stand in a circle." They did what she said. "I want everybody to reach in with and grab two hands. Try to make sure they don't belong to the same people."

Tony DiNozzo was many things, but an idiot he was not. He quickly reached into the circle and grabbed two female hands. Thus he was ensured that for the duration of the game he would be holding Ziva and Abby's hands and not someone completely unacceptable like agent Sacks. He mused to himself that this could be interesting if Ziva was forced to weave her way through many people's arms.

Ziva felt someone grab one of her hands immediately and resisted the urge to crush the bones in their hand. She didn't think she liked this. Who wanted to hold hands with strangers? Someone grabbed her other hand and she noticed that they were all now standing very close together in each other's personal space. In fact if she shifted her head a little to the left…

Tony noticed that Ziva's face was now very close to him. His only complaint was how much shorter she was, so instead of being face to face they were face to neck. He noticed that she was angling away from the general group and stood more facing him. He angled his body so that he was now facing her more as well. He didn't blame her, hell he didn't want to be pressed up against the FBI either, but her breath on his neck was really starting to distract him.

That was better. Ziva was now mostly facing Tony and instead of being pressed against agent Smith who kept staring at her and she was close enough to Tony to inhale his scent. He shifted a bit towards her as well and she had to resist the temptation to lay her head on his chest.

"Great!" Mary suddenly called out. "Now here's the tricky part. I want you to untangle yourself until you're forming a circle and your hands aren't tangled."

Her words had Ziva whipping her head around to stare at the tangle of people in front of her. She angled her head back so she could meet Tony's eyes and uttered a horrified "Is she serious?"

Tony chuckled at the look on his partners face. She looked much like Gibbs had earlier a look of pure horror on her face. "'Fraid so Sweet Cheeks." Was all he said with a grin. He noticed that Agent Smith was standing to her other side watching them. He shot him a look and then looked over the mass of arms and bodies that they needed to detangle. He noticed that Abby and McGee had an arm that was placed over he and Ziva and so he decided that the sooner they started the sooner they could end.

"Hey McTwister," he called out to McGee, can you two raise your arm so that Ziva can go under?" McGee nodded his head and the arm that had been lying across theirs was suddenly lifted up a bit in the air.

"OK Zee, you need to go under that arm." He said tugging on her hand a little to pull her through."

Ziva found herself more then a little pleased to be holding Tony's hand. She didn't know why she was so surprised, or even why she didn't recognise it, but when he started tugging on her hand she felt her heart skip a little. He told her to go under McGee's arm and she followed his directions and somehow found herself pressed even closer to him. He had effectively manoeuvred it so that she now had McGee's arm between her and agent Smith. She also gave a passing thought that they were now holding hands but their arms weren't tangled.

Tony allowed a smug smile to cross his face as he looked over at agent Smith. Ziva was now completely pressed up against his side and McGee's arm was between her and the other agent. He had a brief thought that Ziva felt really good tucked in next to him, but quickly focused on something else. He watched other people going under arms and twisting in weird directions and gave a small chuckle at Gibbs death staring agent Sacks until the other agent decided he would go over instead of making Gibbs go under.

Ziva looked to see what Tony was chuckling at and shook her head at the sight of Gibbs making people move around him. She felt a tugging on the hand that didn't belong to Tony and looked to see Fornell tugging her hand.

"Ziva do you think you can go over their arm?" he asked indicating the arm of Gibbs and agent Smith.

She found herself a little unwilling to leave the closeness she was sharing with Tony, however the sooner this game was over the sooner they could move on to something else. She noticed that to go over Gibbs arm she was going to have to go back under McGee's arm and paid attention to the fact that they're wasn't going to be much space to squeeze through.

Tony felt his breath hitch a little when Ziva pulled a Ninja trick and went over Gibbs arm and under McGee's. There wasn't much space for the manoeuvre and she had effectively twister her body into a human pretzel to slide through. He couldn't look away until she was safe on the other side however that had unfortunately pulled his arm through as well and he now found himself face to face with Gibbs.

"That's your partner DiNozzo." He growled at him.

Tony simply smiled at him as since his arms were tied up he knew there would be no forthcoming head slap.

"Remind me to slap you later." Gibbs said as if he could read the younger agents mind and cleanly wiping the grin off his face.

"I don't know that that's a very good team building activity Boss." Tony dared to reply.

"That'll be two now DiNozzo. You want to go for more?"

Tony was saved from having to answer by Abby pulling his other arm. It wasn't too long before they had all detangled themselves and stood in a circle. McGee simply shook his head when he realized that Tony had somehow managed to end up between Abby and Ziva. He wasn't surprised, he should have actually thought of that himself.

"Oh Good!" Mary exclaimed once they had completely detangled themselves. "Now don't you all feel closer for having done this?"

"I feel closer to going insane." Tony heard Ziva mutter and couldn't help the chuckle from escaping.

"That's three DiNozzo." Gibbs called from the other side of the circle.

Tony gulped. Gibbs never forgot anything so he knew that he would be in for head slaps later in the day. He thought back to Ziva pulling her ninja move and smiled. Ok maybe some of them would be worth it.

Ziva noticed her partners smile and wondered what he was thinking. This human knot thing hadn't been as bad as she thought it would be, but she still wasn't keen on playing again.

"Can we let go now?" Fornell suddenly called out dropping her hand. Suddenly everyone was dropping hands and taking a step back. Ziva smiled as she knew that Gibbs and Fornell especially would be desperate to get their personal space back.

"You did good Team." Mary complimented them. "Would you like to play again?" A chorus of No's was heard quickly and loudly from the group. It still didn't wipe the smile from Mary's face. "Perhaps another icebreaker this time?" she suggested to the group. "How about silent and solemn?" she suggested.

"Sounds like a Gibbs game." Tony said to Ziva.

"That 4 DiNozzo." Came the reply again from across the room as Ziva snickered.

"Here's how you play." Mary explained. "You'll need to form pairs. You'll stand back to back and at the count of three you'll turn around to face each other. You can not talk or laugh and you must keep a serious face on. Once you smile or laugh, you're out of the game. The last one to smile will be our winner."

Naturally Tony and Ziva were paired together for the first round. At the count of three they spun around to face each other and Ziva found herself laughing out of sheer surprise. Tony's "serious" face had him all scrunched up as if he was deep in thought. As she hadn't been expecting it she found herself being eliminated from the game. She simply shook her head still chuckling and went to the chairs at the side of the room. Abby came over to sit with her.

"McGee cheated." She muttered.

"How do you cheat?" Ziva asked.

"He made a Gibbs face." Was Abby's reply which had Ziva chuckling again.

They watched the game in silence until it was down to 4 players. Unsurprisingly Gibbs and Fornell were still up there, however much to the surprise of both Ziva and Abby, Tony and Tim were both still in the game.

Mary counted to three and they turned to face each other. It was Tony and Gibbs and McGee and Fornell. No one smiled. This went on for a few rounds until Mary just decided to call the 4 of them winners in the interest of saving time.

"Thanks so much to all of you for participating today." Mary finally said addressing the group at large. "We hope you've had a chance to mingle a little with everyone here. I just have a few announcements before we conclude for the evening. Just a reminder that the partner counselling sessions will begin tomorrow for those of you that are signed up." Ziva groaned. "Also I want to remind you that there will be a challenge at the end of the week to see how well you've done at team building. I'm going to give you just one hint, you'll need communication." She smiled at the room as they all rolled their eyes at the cryptic remark. "That's it everyone. Enjoy your evening. Individual team sessions will begin tomorrow."

Team NCIS quickly filled out of the room and into the lobby area. Tony looked down at his watch "Uh what do we do now Boss? It's only 5:30."

Gibbs walked over to Tony and delivered the promised 4 head slaps. "Do whatever you want DiNozzo. I'm going to dinner with Fornell." He said before walking off with the other agent.

Tony, Abby, Tim and Ziva all looked at each other. "You want to go out for dinner?" Tony asked.

"Sure." Abby replied. Is there anywhere good around here McGee?"

"I will go anywhere he is not." Ziva said glaring at Agent Smith who was still staring at her.

"Someone should really tell him to back off before Ziva kills him." McGee said pointedly looking at Tony.

"He would deserve it." Was all she said with a shrug.

"Lets just go out to eat before anyone winds up dead." Abby said with a grin as they all trouped out to the parking lot. "Shot gun." She yelled running for McGee's car.

Tony shook his head. "No fair Abby." He yelled after her. "We haven't even decided which car we're taking."

"You are a sore looser Tony." Ziva said with a grin before tapping her partner on the cheek gently. "I bet I can beat you to the car." She said before taking off after Abby.

"Women." Was all Tony said before taking off after his partner and grabbing her around the waist and swinging her around once he caught up.

McGee simply shook his head as he walked at a normal pace over to his car. "I'm surrounded by children."


	5. The first Session

The next day dawned bright and early for Tony and Ziva. Their first partner therapy session had been scheduled for 7 am and while they both wanted nothing more then to skip it, Gibbs had threatened to fire them if they didn't go.

Tony gave a giant yawn and he walked across the hall and knocked on his partner's door. He heard Abby call out "Go away" before Ziva opened the door and slipped through.

"Morning Sweet Cheeks. Let's go get this over with."

"I do not see why we have to go to counselling." Ziva said. "We are fine on our own yes?"

Tony was secretly hoping that maybe he would learn more about Ziva's past, he wouldn't mind knowing what had turned her into the person she was today, but he didn't really like the idea of some shrink telling them what they needed to do. He gave a non-committal grunt in answer to her question and was surprised when she stopped and reached out to grab his arm.

"Do you like the idea of counselling sessions?" She asked with a question in her eyes.

Tony simply sighed. "I don't like the idea of a shrink playing with our minds. However I wouldn't mind getting to know you better." He answered truthfully.

Ziva shook her head a small smile playing on her lips. "You already know me better then most. Anything else will just scare you." She said teasing him a little before continuing on their path to the counsellor's office.

Tony mulled over her comment as they walked silently. He really didn't think there was anything that he could learn at this point that would scare him. He knew she had a past; she was an assassin for crying out loud. The fact that she thought her past would scare him bothered him, and he didn't know why.

"You know" he finally worked up the courage to say on the elevator ride down "There's nothing I could learn that would scare me away. I'm afraid you're stuck with me as a partner for the duration. I'm not going anywhere."

Ziva got the feeling that he was talking about something else, but as she always did, she addressed the surface issue, too scared to delve deeper into the 'what ifs'. "I'm not going anywhere either Tony." She said with a soft look on her face and allowed herself to reach out and squeeze his hand before quickly letting go.

They got off the elevator and walked over to the counsellor's door. Elsa Grude was the name written on the door and Tony gave a brief knock before she called out "Come in." He held the door open for Ziva and followed her into the room. He had expected to see a desk with a couple of chairs in front of it however he was surprised to see a couch with an easy chair in front.

"Feel free to sit anywhere." Elsa told them gesturing to the chairs and the couch.

Ziva hadn't even noticed the seating arrangement. The first thing she had noticed when she walked into the room was their counsellor herself. She was disappointed as Elsa was a beautiful blond haired, blue eyed woman, and Ziva was sure that whatever was said was going to be lost on Tony as she seemed to be just his type. Ziva didn't know if she could take 3 hour long sessions of Tony ogling another woman. She steeled herself and walked forward and onto the couch.

Elsa found this partnership intriguing. They had just walked into her room and she could already tell that they were going to be her favourite pair of the week. Normally she ended up dealing with same sex partnerships and they worked through issues like resentment and trust. Here she could see that the man had held the door open for the woman, and as soon as the woman had laid eyes on her she had stiffened her back. You could almost cut the sexual tension with a knife. However the fact that he had held the door open for her showed respect and she noticed that the woman didn't flinch away when her partner sat a bit closer then was necessary next to her on the couch. They sat next to each other, the female looking at her with weary acceptance and the male with curiosity. She noticed the look of appreciation normally present in male eyes was missing from his, and she felt her respect for this as yet unknown male increase. He didn't gawk or leer or do anything that would embarrass his female partner.

"Good Morning." Elsa said with a smile. "I'm Elsa Grude and I'm so glad you could join me. I know most partnerships don't like the idea of having to see a counsellor and I appreciate you not complaining when you first came in." she saw a ghost of a smile cross the woman's face and resolved to win her trust.

"I don't look at your files for your first visit. I prefer to get a sense of who you are directly from you. Why don't you start by telling me a little about your partner?" She gestured to Ziva, "Why don't you go first."

Ziva was startled. She hadn't expected to have to introduce Tony at all. She had expected her to already know all of their pertinent information and she paused for a moment before deciding what to say.

"This is my partner Anthony DiNozzo." She paused.

"That's all you've got Zee?" Tony asked teasing her with a grin on his face.

"I wasn't finished." she said hotly, annoyed that he was teasing her in front of their shrink. "He thinks he is funny." She said getting into this now, "He is sometimes immature, impulsive and he likes to make fun of others. However he is a very good agent, loyal and kind. He likes movies, movie quotes and women. Also I think he likes to annoy me just to see if he can."

Elsa thought that this description and their interaction was much more revealing then their file would have been. She gave a brief thought that this was actually going to be enjoyable for a change before gesturing to agent DiNozzo to introduce his partner.

"This is my partner Ziva David." He began, "She's dangerous, and she can kill someone with a paper clip in 18 different ways. She really likes books and men." He said with a grin. "She likes to know she can scare people and she needs to have more fun. She's a great partner, loyal and dedicated. She has a soft heart buried under steel and she's really fun to tease."

He sat back after he was finished with a grin on his face. Elsa took in his relaxed stance and noticed that his partner looked somewhat amused despite herself. Interesting.

"Do you trust each other?" she asked.

"Yes." Came the immediate answer from both although she noticed they didn't look at each other as they said it. She thought perhaps there had been an issue in their past that had perhaps infringed on that trust.

"All right, I would like to do a trust exercise with you then." She said gesturing for them to stand up.

"Ziva I would like you to stand in front of your partner." Ziva walked a bit ahead and stood in front of Tony. It did not escape Elsa's notice that Tony's gaze briefly dropped to her butt before coming up to look at her to see what she would ask next. She simply raised one eyebrow and got a grin in return.

"I want you to fall backwards and let Tony catch you. It will demonstrate how much you trust you partner to catch you." Almost before she had finished Ziva rolled her eyes and fell backwards, allowing Tony to catch her cleanly before taking a step forward and standing her back upright. In all her years as a partner counsellor she had never seen anything like it. She caught her mouth before it dropped open.

"Would you mind doing that again?" she asked and watched astonished as Ziva dropped backwards into her partners arms.

"Have you done this before?" she asked half expecting them to tell her yes.

"Hardly." Ziva answered.

"Ziva do you think you could catch Tony?" This caused the partners to turn and look at each other for a moment and she noticed that they communicated completely without words.

"Yes." She nodded and they reversed positions.

Elsa watched astonished as the rather large man dropped backwards without a thought and was caught by his partner. The smaller woman sunk a little with his weight but she didn't drop him and they worked together to get him back on his feet.

"Ok, you can take your seats now." She said before returning to her own chair. She was completely astonished. She had never seen anything like that before, each of them trusted the other to have their back completely. Most partnerships were afraid of being dropped on the floor.

They quickly went back to the same positions that had previously occupied on the couch, closer then most partners would have sat together, but not so close that most people would think something was going on. Elsa was not most people.

"You trust each other." Elsa said.

"I do believe we mentioned that, yes." Was DiNozzo's sarcastic reply.

"I'm going to modify the program a bit for the two of you." Elsa said thoughtfully. "Most of these sessions are designed to promote trust and communication, however I'm thinking that as far as your job is concerned that's not an issue."

She noticed that they didn't look at each other which told her that she was right on the mark. As far as their job was concerned they didn't have any issues. She would bet however that outside of work they had some communication issues.

"Are you romantically involved?" she decided to ask grabbing the bull by the horns.

A fulminating "No" was heard and she took a moment to study their faces. Neither one of them would look at her, or each other for that matter which told her that they had both thought about it. The fact that they wouldn't look at each other told her that neither one wanted the other to know they had thought about it. Interesting.

"Why not?"

Tony's mouth dropped open. Their counsellor had actually asked them why they weren't together. If Gibbs found out about this he would have a fit, and have them all out of here so fast their heads would spin. He was actually surprised Ziva wasn't saying anything. Normally she would be all over anyone who suggested that they hook up. Abby had been the object of more then one death threat. He snuck a sideways glance at his partner who was staring at her lap. What the heck did that mean?

Ziva wanted to answer that Tony didn't want to be with her. They weren't unused to people assuming they were together. When you spent as much time with someone as she spent with Tony is was only natural that you would learn their habits and how to read them. That didn't mean that they should automatically be together. She gave an inaudible sigh. Somehow she knew that if she answered Elsa would see right through whatever lie she could come up with.

"I seem to have found your communication issue." Elsa said amused. "The fact that neither of you will answer my question of Why Not tells me that you've never discussed it and thus don't want to say anything that could potentially open yourself up for being hurt. I'm going to give you some homework."

At the word homework Tony snorted and Ziva rolled her eyes. Now they had homework? What had happened to their fun week of games?

"I want you to discuss what would happen if you were romantically involved. I want you to discuss your feelings on the subject."

At this Tony actually started laughing. Ziva looked at him amused and Elsa gave him a puzzled look.

"What's so funny agent DiNozzo?"

"You want us to talk about feelings." He said still chuckling.

"Well yes, that's the general idea."

It was Ziva who said what he had been trying unsuccessfully to convey.

"We do not discuss feelings." She said.

"Why is that?" Elsa asked.

Ziva was starting to get annoyed with the fact that everything was a question. "It tends to upset things when feelings come up." She said honestly.

"Sometimes things need to get upset in order to work better." Was Elsa's response.

"Don't fix it if it isn't broken." Tony quipped. "Thank you for your concern Elsa, but I'm sure we'll be just fine. Besides our Boss doesn't really like it if his agents hook up."

"So you're not together because of your boss?" she asked.

Ziva glared at Tony for having made things worse. "I'm sorry Elsa," she intervened, "but our time is up and we're supposed to meet our team for breakfast."

"Nice subject change Ziva, but I'll let this go for today. I'd like to meet with you tomorrow morning if that's ok."

"Do we get a choice?" Tony muttered before Ziva hit him. "Ouch. That's abuse. Did you see that Elsa?"

"See what Agent DiNozzo?" she asked with a smile to Ziva.

"We will be here." Ziva said before standing up and dragging Tony with her.

As they left the room Elsa decided to make them her pet project for the week. She had seen a lot of couples and partners in her time as a therapist, and these two were among the most interesting. She went over to the bookshelf behind her desk and drew out a book on marriage counselling. This one would be the most useful she decided and started paging through for ideas.

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**A/N: Sorry it's been a couple of days since my last update...things are a bit busy with Christmas coming up. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, I really enjoyed writting it. Thanks for all the reviews so far. You guys are great!**

** -Kris**


	6. Breakfast

Tony and Ziva headed to the cafeteria in silence. There was an unacknowledged agreement that they would not be discussing anything that Elsa had recommended that they discuss. Some things were better left alone.

They arrived in the cafeteria and found the rest of the team already eating breakfast.

"How did it go?" Abby was the first to ask before they could even sit down.

"I'm going to get some breakfast." Was Tony's quick reply. "You want anything Zee?" he said effectively feeding her to the wolves.

She shot him a narrowed glare. "My usual will be fine." She replied and Tony headed off to the front of the cafeteria as she sat down with the team.

"So?" Abby asked again. "How did it go?"

"She wants us to talk about feelings." Was Ziva's somewhat disgusted reply. Gibbs snorted into his coffee as Abby and McGee's mouths dropped open.

"Feelings about what?" Abby quickly recovered.

"Oh just feelings in general. Are you sure you can't get us out of this Gibbs?"

"Not if you want to keep your job." A smirk crossing his face. The truth was he wouldn't have traded places with his two agents for anything in the world. There were few things in life that were less painful then being made to discuss you're feelings in front of someone else. He smirked a little more at the thought of Tony and Ziva actually talking about something meaningful.

Tony came back to the table and placed a yogurt and some cereal in front of Ziva before sitting down to his own breakfast of pancakes. McGee decided to have some fun with the senior Agents current situation.

"So Tony, how do you feel about counselling?"

Tony shot an irritated look at Ziva before responding. "I _Feel _like I'm going to kick your butt McIrritating if you ever ask me about my feelings again."

Ziva smirked. She found the situation a little amusing. Granted she hated the fact of discussing _feelings _with anyone however at least she was comforted by the fact that Tony felt the same.

"What is on the agenda for today?" she asked changing the subject.

"We have a team session for a couple of hours this morning, and then a joint session with another team this afternoon." Was Gibbs reply.

"Do we know who Boss? Cause I don't think I can handle hanging out with Sacks again." Came DiNozzo's quick reply as he shoved pancakes into his mouth.

"CIA" Gibbs spit out.

Everyone managed to look a little stunned at that one. The CIA was not known for their participation in interagency activities. They continued their breakfast in silence for a bit before Abby decided she needed to go upstairs for a bit before their morning session. Naturally McGee left with her leaving Tony and Ziva with Gibbs.

"Anything I need to be concerned about with the counselling thing?" he asked them.

They both immediately thought back on Elsa's question of why weren't they romantically involved.

"Nothing Boss." Tony replied. "Unless you want to launch a complaint about people being forced to discuss feelings."

"You're on your own DiNozzo." Gibbs replied with a visible shudder. "I'm going back upstairs. Meet us in the rec area at 10 am." He said as he got up to leave.

The two partners finished their breakfast in silence each contemplating the same thing. Did they want to be romantically involved with their partner?

Ziva knew she had feelings for Tony. The problem was that she didn't want to have feelings for Tony. Every time she tried to reach out and start a serious conversation he changed the subject or avoided it altogether. She never knew where she stood with him. One day he would be checking her out and the next he would be giving her the cold shoulder. She found however, that she still couldn't get him out of her head.

Tony was avoiding anything that resembled feelings for his partner. He knew that if he thought about it they were there, but her preferred to just not look. Anyone he had ever had feelings for had somehow managed to wind up hurt or dead, and he didn't want to hurt Ziva and he sure as hell didn't want her dead, so he just avoided the whole issue. When she brought up something personal he made a joke, when he could see something in her eyes he changed the subject. He was all for the flirting, he just avoided anything deeper.

Tony naturally finished eating his pancakes before Ziva finished her bowl of cereal. He simply sat back and waited while she finished eating and then gave in audible groan when Elsa walked in.

Ziva turned around to see what Tony had groaned at and unfortunately Elsa spotted them and headed over.

"Eat faster Ziva." Tony quickly begged before throwing a charming smile at Elsa as she walked over.

Ziva rolled her eyes unsurprised that Tony would ask her to eat faster and then proceed to flirt with their therapist. Perhaps he wanted her to eat faster so that he could be alone with her. The thought caused her to pause for a moment; it didn't sit well with her that he would ditch her to flirt with their therapist, however she was an attractive woman and she could see why Tony was interested. She did start to eat a bit faster not wanting to witness the exchange.

Tony noticed that Ziva started to eat faster with a bit of a sour look on her face and he hoped they could escape Elsa soon. She was hot, but she had brought up feelings about his partner he was uncomfortable with and so he would prefer to avoid her.

Elsa noticed that Ziva had starting eating faster and she had noticed Tony's smile. He was very attractive she mused to herself. Too bad she had resigned to bringing these two together or she might have been interested for herself. She sat down across from them.

"How's breakfast?" she asked.

"It's very good." Tony answered. "Would you like me to go get you something?"

Interesting. "No I'm fine that you. Have you two talked about what we've discussed?"

Ziva choked on a bite of cereal. Tony casually leaned over and thumped his partner on the back causing her to glare at him.

"Ah no." Tony replied nervously as Ziva shovelled another spoonful of cereal into her mouth to prevent herself from having to say anything.

"That's too bad." Elsa responded. "I feel that there's lots you could benefit from if you simply discussed things with each other."

"Like what?" Tony asked testing her. He noticed Ziva was eating slower now taking a very long time to chew her cereal and he knew she was stalling so she didn't have to say anything. Traitor.

"You have a very unique relationship dynamic. You very obviously care about each other without really wanting the other to see it." She gestured to Tony arm which had remained on the seat behind Ziva's back after he had patted her on the back. He quickly retracted it which made Elsa smile. "I'm guessing here, but I bet you know all the little details about each other, like what you like to eat for breakfast, how you take your coffee, what will make the other person the most annoyed, what makes them smile, and I imagine you know some of the big things too, but there's many things you keep closed off from each other to keep from being too close. What you don't see and what other people do is that you're already too involved. You won't be able to go back, you can only go forward."

Tony shifted uncomfortably in his seat and Ziva; cereal forgotten had her mouth hanging open.

"We are partners" she finally said "Partners who spend as much time together as we do are naturally close."

"Trust me Ziva." Elsa said "I've worked with many partners. I've seen some who spend even more time together then you and Tony and trust me, you're unique."

Tony, still not willing to acknowledge what she was telling them quickly leapt on the fact that Ziva was done eating. He was ready to turn tail and run. He was a coward. He would admit it in a heartbeat and Elsa scared the crap out of him.

"Well this has been a fun chat Elsa, but we need to go back upstairs and get ready for our first team building session. You ready to go Zee?" he asked Ziva eyes begging her to agree and get them out of there.

Ziva saw the plea in Tony's eyes and her thoughts echoed his. She wanted out of there. This was getting very uncomfortable.

"We'll see you tomorrow morning Elsa?" she asked.

Elsa saw the panic on their faces and almost laughed. Those two had some serious commitment issues.

"I'll see you tomorrow she agreed, however I'm changing your homework."

Tony's eyes narrowed at her. "To what?" he asked.

"Well since I can see that you're very obviously too uncomfortable to discuss anything with each other I'm going to simplify this for you." She saw them relax just a fraction. "I want you to kiss before our next session."

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**A/N: I just wanted to say you guys rock! I can't believe how many reviews I've already gotten on the first 5 chapters! Well I have some news, I'm heading home for Christmas soon and so I'll be at my parents with no access to updating my story. I leave on Friday so I'll try and get some more chapters up before I go, I just wanted to let you know that there's going to be a bit of a lull for a week or so :) That being said, did you see the Christmas episode last night? I thought they could have given us a bit more Tiva for a Christmas present, but clearly I don't work there. :)**

** Thanks Again**

** -Kris**


	7. Girl Talk

Elsa had dropped her bomb shell and then gotten up and walked away chuckling as she did so. The looks on their faces had been absolutely priceless. She didn't really think they would kiss each other before their next session, but now the seed was planted and they would think about it. Hopefully even dwell upon it all day. Tomorrow she would make them kiss if they hadn't already done so by the session. A wicked grin found its way to her face; sometimes she really loved her job!

Tony and Ziva were still sitting at the breakfast table completely shell shocked. Neither one could believe what she had just told them to do. The silence was one of the few times that was actually awkward neither one knowing just what to say.

"Uh, Ziva you want to go upstairs and get ready?" Tony finally asked.

Ziva didn't say anything. She simply nodded her head and grabbed their trays heading for the garbage can and tray disposal. She hadn't gotten very far before Tony caught up and relieved her of the trays. She threw him a questioning raised eyebrow.

He simply shrugged his shoulders and dumper their stuff before they headed upstairs together.

"Do we need to talk about this?" He finally asked. "Because I don't want things to get all awkward and weird. Besides," he wiggled his eyebrows "it could be fun."

Ziva looked up at her partner and noticed the look of amusement on his face. She briefly considered just leaning up and kissing him, it probably would be fun, and it would have the added benefit of surprising him, as she knew he didn't really expect her to do it. That's why he was teasing her. She gestured for him to come closer and brought her face so close to his that she could feel his breath on her lips. The desire to kiss him almost won, however she simply whispered "It could be very fun." Before getting off the elevator and walking away from him.

Tony was routed to the spot. His brain had shot from playful to stunned in less then a second. Suddenly he realized that he really did want to kiss her. He wanted it a lot. She was messing with him and he knew it, however he vowed that before this week was over he was going to kiss her. That was the only way he could think of to beat her at her own game. She didn't think he would actually kiss her. A smug grin settled across his face, we'll he'd show her.

Ziva walked into the room she shared with Abby and leaned back against the door. The almost kiss had zapped all of her strength for the moment. It was there that Abby found her.

"Are you ok Ziva?"

"I am fine Abby. There is nothing to be concerned about."

"Are you sure? Cause you look like you just got hit with a truck."

Ziva let out a dry chuckle. "We simply ran into the counsellor again. She is very…persistent."

"Persistent with what? Making you talk about feelings? Cause I think talking about feelings is a good thing." Her eyes suddenly sharpened and a grin settled on her face. "What kind of feelings are you and Tony supposed to be talking about anyway?" she asked a smile in her voice.

"I do not really want to talk about it." Ziva answered. "If I can't discuss _feelings_ with Tony I certainly cannot discuss them with anyone else."

"Oh Ziva," Abby replied shaking her head. "This is where you're wrong. This is what girl talk is for. The _feelings _that you can't discuss with guys you talk about with girls. That way you still get all the benefits of venting without ever letting the guys know."

Ziva shook her head. "I do not think so. Nice try though Abby."

Abby suddenly stood in front of the door effectively blocking Ziva's escape route. "Would you rather talk to Tony?" she asked. When she got no response she tried another tactic. "Fine. What's this counsellor asked that's so hard for you two to talk about anyway?"

Ziva sighed. She knew Abby and she knew that Abby would not give this up until she had the information she wanted. She also knew that Abby was one of the worst people for keeping secrets. She weighed the pros and cons of Abby knowing what Elsa wanted them to discuss. Worse case scenario Gibbs found out and hauled them out of their sessions.

"She wants us to discuss why we are not involved romantically."

Abby's eyes went wide and her mouth dropped open before she started laughing hysterically. Ziva immediately went on the defensive. Was the idea of her and Tony so laughable? Her back stiffened and she walked away from Abby and into the other room.

Abby realized what was happening a spit second after it happened. She noted that Ziva was upset with her reaction and her brain put together all the pieces before she quickly stopped laughing and followed Ziva.

"I'm sorry for laughing. It's just that I really like this Elsa person and I've never met her. I think you and Tony would be perfect together, man you should have had counselling years ago. I'm not laughing at the idea of you and Tony together, more like the exact opposite really."

Ziva turned to look at Abby and noticed the sincerity in her eyes. Ziva was in trouble and she knew it. Her reaction had just told Abby everything that she would have never said, and now Abby knew her secret. She cursed herself for having been so careless. This was the exact reason Mossad taught to not have emotions.

"You misunderstand Abby. I am simply annoyed with the counsellor that is all."

Abby saw that Ziva was backpedalling and grinned. "Nice try Ziva but no luck. I promise I won't tell Gibbs and Timmy." She said with her fingers crossed behind her back. She had no intentions of telling Gibbs unless he would be on their side; however Tim was a whole different story. She was going to need his help. She also resolved to seek out and talk to this Elsa lady. She seemed like a very perceptive person and maybe she could help her out with her new mission. Operation Tiva Match; she thought in her head combining Tony and Ziva's names.

Ziva saw that Abby wasn't going to believe and kind of excuse she made for herself and resigned herself to knowing she had just screwed everything up. The moment Tony got wind of this everything would be over and she would be humiliated. Stupid counsellor, she thought. She had her all off balance and it had only been one session. She resolved to go back to her Mossad training and try and rid herself of emotions. She looked at Abby and muttered

"You do know that I could submit you to a lot of pain if this gets out?"

Abby grinned. "Not if you wanted to keep your job. I'm the favourite remember?"

Ziva shook her head and softly asked "Please Abby?"

Abby realized that Ziva had just trusted her with something major and that if she treated this carelessly she would probably loose Ziva as her friend. Ziva was afraid of getting hurt and it was that knowledge more then anything else that had Abby resolving that whatever they did in their new plan that it wouldn't come back on Ziva.

Abby walked over to Ziva and gave her a big hug. Ziva stood there stiffly for a moment before returning the gesture.

"See Ziva. This is why you have girl talk. Doesn't it make you feel better?"

Tony walked back into his room with a glint in his eye. McGee took one look at him and groaned.

"Tony, we're here for Team building. You can not just go chasing some hot girl around the hotel."

Tony whipped his head around to look at McGee. "Who says I'm chasing a girl McVirgin?"

"I've seen that look on your face before and it never bodes well for the rest of us. Besides, Gibbs will kill you!"

Tony's face sobered a little at that one. It was true, Gibbs would kill him. Kissing your partner was absolutely forbidden unless it was an undercover case. He thought back to the last time they were undercover together and smiled. This just might be worth it though. Somehow the thought of it being forbidden just added an element of danger. Well, more then one element of danger if he paused to think that Ziva would probably kill him as well. He decided that he would just tease her until she wanted it too. Heck, he knew she was attracted to him, sometimes the flirting got a little intense on both their parts. Maybe this Elsa chick was on to something.

McGee watched the smile come across Tony's face and groaned. This was not going to be good. He knew that look and he knew that whoever it was Tony had his eye on was going to be pursued until she either gave in or completely let it be known she wasn't interested. He hoped for all of their sakes it was the latter.

"Who is she?" he finally asked.

"Who's who probie?

"Whoever it is that's got that grin on your face. I want to know who she is so I can avoid this whole issue."

Tony shook his head. "It's no one for you to be concerned about Probie. Now why don't we get all of our stuff ready and head downstairs to meet Gibbs."

Tim simply shook his head and headed out the door. Sometimes he was better off not knowing anyway.

They made it down to the rec hall before the girls and after Gibbs who was standing there waiting for his team to arrive.

"Where's Ziva and Abby?" he asked.

Tony shrugged. "Don't know boss. Maybe they're having some girl time." He said wiggling his eyebrows. Gibbs hand quickly made contact with the back of his head.

"Right Boss, they're probably on their way down." He quickly amended.

"That's what I thought." Gibbs grinned back at the younger agent. They only had to wait a few more minutes before the two women had made it down to the rec room.

"What took you so long Zee-Vah?" Tony decided to tease?

Ziva rolled her eyes and decided to play with him a little bit. She wrapped her arm through Abby's and responded.

"Abby and I were getting ready. Together." She said with a little extra emphasis on the together. Abby quickly realized what she was doing and decided to join in.

"We had to do each other's hair you know. And it was kinda hot in our room, so we had to get redressed."

Tony's mouth dropped and everyone started laughing at the look on his face. It took him a second to realize they were playing with him before he narrowed his eyes.

"Funny ladies. You know it's just not right to play with people like that."

"What's wrong Tony?" McGee asked, "You over your new girl already?" he said smirking.

Tony shot a glare at him as Gibbs asked "What girl? You're not here to hook up is that understood Tony?"

"No girl boss. I don't know what the Probie here is even talking about." He quickly said.

Ziva felt her heart drop. They had been here a day and he was already chasing someone. She really didn't know why she was surprised.

Abby knew that Ziva was probably upset with the news. She was. She resolved to talk to McGee later in the day. Didn't Tony know he was supposed to be with Ziva? This was so going to happen.

It was then that Mary walked in. "Good Morning Team NCIS how are we doing today?"

"Fine" Gibbs grunted back.

"Good. Today's session is going to be our obstacle course." She gestured the obstacle course that had been set up around the room. It just looked like your standard obstacle course and they all felt a measure of relief that that was all they would have to do.

"Here's the team building part," she smiled. "You're going to be tied together."

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**A/N: I just wanted to thank you for your reviews again! I can't get over how much you seem to like the story! I had over a hundred reviews on like 6 chapters! You guys totally rock. So I realize that this isn't one of the more exciting chapters, but I wanted Abby to find out cause she seems like she would be all over playing matchmaker. Gotta love her :) **

** Thanks Again!**

** -Kris**


	8. The Obstacle Course

Gibbs felt his mouth drop open. This lady had to be kidding. There was no way he was going through an obstacle course tied to his team. He looked around and noticed a balance beam. He snorted. He bet McGee had trouble with those when he wasn't tied to someone. He had never wanted to kill Vance as much as he did in that moment.

Abby started bouncing on the balls of her feet. She was excited. This was going to be a lot of fun. She loved obstacle courses and she was thrilled with the extra challenge of this one.

"You need to decide what order you would like to be tied up in." Mary continued. "The order will be important for your strategy." She gestured to the obstacle course. "You're going to need to navigate your way through the balance beam, climb up a wall, down the slide, across the rope net, across the hanging hoops and then you can untie your team and go across the zip line in pairs." She nodded to Gibbs "As team leader you can go down the Zip line by yourself."

They turned to look at the course. Ziva thought that the hanging hoops looked like they would be the hardest. The hoops hung from the ceiling and they would have to swing from ring to ring much like the monkey bars from their childhood. She gave a brief thought to wither or not McGee could get across. She shrugged her shoulders; some things could not be helped.

After some deliberation it was decided that Gibbs would go first, followed by Abby, Tim and Tony with Ziva pulling up the rear. Mary brought the rope over and they proceeded to tie each other together.

Abby who felt that Ziva and Tony really needed to get together, made sure that there was lots of space on the rope between herself and Gibbs and Tim, making sure that the space left at the end of the rope was barely any.

Ziva mentally groaned once she realized what Abby had done. There were only a few inches of rope between her and Tony and she dreaded the thought of going through the course continuously bumping in to him. Not to mention no thanks to Elsa she kempt coming back to that kiss thing.

Tony grinned when he saw the couple inches of rope between he and Ziva. He WAS going to kiss her at some point and this was just going to increase the amount of physical proximity there would be hopefully brining her to the same conclusion.

Gibbs turned around to study his team. He noticed the rope placement and snorted. There were a couple of feet of rope between him and Abby and a couple more feet between Abby and McGee. Naturally Tony and McGee had kept a couple of feet between them leaving just a couple of inches between Tony and Ziva. They would be practically on top of each other for the entire course. As far as a team strategy went he did have to agree that it made sense. Tony could easily carry Ziva if he needed too and he didn't want McGee pulling the entire team down.

"Good, you have your strategy." Mary said. "Now I'm going to throw another fun little twist in; if any one of you falls off any part of the course, you'll all have to start all over again." She gave a calculated grin. "So it's in your best interest to help each other stay up. She pulled out a timer, off you go!"

Gibbs groaned and headed for the balance beam dragging his team behind him. He really hated these things. He climbed up the stairs that were in front of the balance beam. He carefully edged out making his way across until the rope that tied him to his team gave a tug and he looked back to see Abby watching him.

"What are you waiting for? World peace?" He growled out at her as she slowly inched out behind him. As soon as the rope went slack he started moving again. He hated balance beams and wanted nothing more to get off of it.

Abby carefully edged out behind Gibbs wobbling just a little bit. Balance beams were not her strong suit and she didn't want to be the one that made them all start over again. She hadn't gotten very far when she felt Tim grab lightly to her waist holding her steady as they both walked across. His hands were warm on her waist and she marvelled a little at how much steadier she felt with his help. They both carefully crossed the beam, working together to not fall off.

Tony waited until the rope between he and McGee went taut before he headed out himself Ziva right behind him. He could feel her warmth where she stood so close to him and it was proving to be more of a distraction then he had anticipated. He kept walking slowly not wanting to rush things in the off chance that he fell off. He knew Ziva had excellent balance and wasn't at all concerned about her behind him. Every now and then she would casually brush up against him and it was about halfway through the beam that this distracted him enough that he could feel himself starting to go over. He mentally cursed himself for being so stupid, however suddenly he found himself upright with Ziva holding him around the middle pressed tightly to his back.

Ziva had watched as Tony had tentatively made his way half way across the balance beam. Naturally her years of dance had made her more then competent on the balance beam and so when she noticed Tony starting to go over, she quickly pressed her body into his, wrapping her arms around his waist to steady him. She inhaled his scent and marvelled at how good it felt to be standing there like that. She held the position a moment longer then necessary before letting him go.

Tony felt the loss as soon as she let go.

"Thanks." He said turning his head to look at her as he did so and once again started wobbling on the beam.

"Tony." She replied exasperated with him as she once again had to wrap her arms around him to keep him from going off. "Keep your eyes focused on going ahead. Do not turn around." Once again she held on a few seconds longer then necessary; she just wanted to make sure he was steady she told herself, before letting him go.

At this point the rest of the team had made it to the other side and turned to see what the hold up was. Abby smiled as soon as she saw Ziva holding onto Tony's waist and she noticed that Tony wasn't complaining about the situation. They started walking again, Ziva's hands now at Tony's waist much as McGee's had been about hers. Abby shook her head speculating a little at Tony's sudden clumsiness. She had seen him in many situations, and clumsy was not a word she would have ever thought about him. She would have bet that he could handle the beam with no problem, though here he needed Ziva's help to get across. Interesting.

It was only a couple of seconds before they had made it across and they team headed down the stairs and towards the wall they now had to climb over.

Mary started clapping. "Good job NCIS. Way to use team work to navigate across the balance beam. Keep up the good work!"

Gibbs shot Mary a death glare before taking a moment to study the "wall" they had to climb. It looked like a typical rock climbing wall, and while it was about 12 feet tall and he knew they would have no problems climbing it individually, they were now tied together which hindered the process a bit. He looked back to the rope separating his agents.

"You two going to have enough space to climb this thing?" he asked looking at Tony and Ziva.

The two of them looked at each other doing that silent communication thing that they always did before Ziva nodded and Tony said they would be fine. Gibbs shook his head knowing that the two agents did not have enough space and would probably be on top of each other then entire way up. This week was doing nothing for rule 12 he muttered to himself before grabbing a hand hold and hauling himself up the wall Abby right behind him.

As it turned out the team had no trouble climbing the wall, Ziva had simply hopped on to Tony's back and he had effortlessly climbed the wall carrying both their weight. Secretly it gave Ziva a little thrill to realize that he could carry both their weight up the wall, she knew he was strong, but it was fairly rare for her to have such a demonstration. When they reached the top she felt Gibbs and McGee grab hold of her to pull her up allowing Tony to haul himself over the top.

Mary once again started clapping and drew the attention of the team down to where she was standing below them. Ziva groaned and Tony let out a mild explicative when they noticed that Elsa was standing below them with Mary.

"Doesn't she have other people to see? How did we get the crazy stalker shrink?" He muttered so only she could hear.

"I thought you liked her?" Ziva asked.

"Well the hotness is somewhat killed by the crazy stalker tendencies. Not to mention she's going to make us discuss this in detail tomorrow. She'll probably want to know how we felt while climbing up the wall." He replied somewhat bitterly.

Ziva smiled at her partner before patting his cheek lightly. "It could always be worse." She replied.

"Oh yeah? How do you figure that?"

"She could make you do counselling with McGee."

Tony titled his head. "Touché" he replied.

Elsa watched the entire exchange from where she had stood with Mary. She knew she was probably freaking the partners out, however she found them absolutely fascinating. She noticed that none of the rest of their team found it at all strange that there was so little rope between them and that he had just carried her up the wall. She looked up to notice the Goth starring down at her with a giant grin. She winked at her and suddenly Elsa knew why there was so little rope between them and why no one found it strange that Tony had carried Ziva up the fall. She smiled back before heading out to her next session a grin on her face. She would track the Goth down later to compare stories, she decided.

Abby watched Elsa leave and then turned to look at the rope net with the rest of the team. Frankly she didn't think this would be a problem. They had gotten up the wall no problem after all. Granted Tony had just carried Ziva up, but the rope shouldn't be too hard. About half way across she changed her mind. The ropes were flat so they had to get across instead of up, and she found that she kept loosing an arm or a leg down one of the holes. Every now and then Tim or Gibbs would haul her back out however it took her much longer to cross then she would have expected. Once she reached the other side she watched as McGee then finally Tony and Ziva completed the section. Everyone was a little out of breath and they took their time before consider the hanging rings.

McGee groaned. He was tired and he really didn't want to cross the hanging rings. There were 10 of them and he closed his eyes tightly when he noticed that they were about 20 feet up in the air now. He knew there were thick mats covering the floor on the off chance that someone fell, but he really didn't like heights.

Tony noticed McGee's face and a broad grin passed across his own. "Hey McFriady, we're only 20 feet up, it's not even that high." He winced as Gibbs hand connected with the back of his head.

"We're supposed to be building a team Tony. Not tearing each other down."

Tony looked at Gibbs a little warily. Since when was Gibbs into team building?

"What's our Strategy?" Gibbs asked his team.

"We cross the rings." Came Ziva's reply. "There is no real strategy. If someone falls the person or people tied to that person have to carry their weight until the end and then we haul them up." She shrugged her shoulders.

Gibbs rolled his eyes but grabbed the first ring and swung out to start the course. Three rings out he stopped to wait for Abby to see if she would be able to hold herself up. He was grateful she could. He didn't want to have to carry her dead weight.

McGee was extremely grateful he had hired that personal trainer. He would have never heard the end of it if he had fallen and Tony had to carry him across. He kept his eyes focused on Abby as she swung from ring to ring. There was no way he was going to look down.

Tony and Ziva were having a bit more trouble navigating there way across. Due to the limited amount of rope between them, they both had to have a hand on the same ring making their progress very slow. Not to mention their swinging bodies kept bumping each other in the most interesting places.

Tony kept trying to focus on the task at hand and not how Ziva's body kept bumping into his. It was distracting at best to have her breasts squished into his back every couple of seconds. He focused on the next ring. He should be glad he was facing away from her. Thump. She hit his back again and her leg slid between his. He sucked in his breath and started thinking about Ducky's autopsy bay. Anything to not think about the way his partner was pressed against him.

Ziva was going slowly crazy. She was going to need a cold shower by the time this was done. She kept bumping into Tony and her legs would scissor between his. She had heard him exhale a couple of times and she knew this was driving him just as crazy as it was driving her. She wanted nothing more to get off of these rings and away from her partner before she jumped him. Maybe Elsa was right and they should just try a kiss.

Abby made it to the other side and laughed when she saw how awkward it was for Tony and Ziva to get across. They kept bumping into each other and she imagined that they were quite uncomfortable. When Tony reached the end Gibbs and McGee pulled them across. She noticed that they each took a step back from each other standing as far apart as the rope would allow neither one looking at each other. She felt her grin go even wider at the thought that they would have to go down the zip line together.

"All right, we're almost done. We just have to go down this Zip line. Abby and McGee you first, I'll follow and then DiNozzo and David." Gibbs turned to look at the partners. "No funny stuff." Ziva's mouth dropped open and Tony grinned.

They untied the rope holding them all together and got Abby and Tim situated on the Zip line. Abby couldn't help but grin as Tim's eyes were screwed shut against the view. She knew he didn't like heights so she didn't say anything as they jumped off the platform and swung down the zip line. They reached the bottom and detangled themselves before Gibbs joined them. They looked up and Gibbs let out a sigh as they could see Tony and Ziva arguing about something at the top.

"Get your asses down here." Gibbs finally yelled up.

Tony was exasperated. Due to their height difference they were arguing over the best way to zoom down the line. Tony thought Ziva should just ride piggy back again and Ziva was insisting that she wasn't too short to ride down the way Abby and McGee had.

"Ziva, you realize if you ride down the way Abby and McGee did we'll be pressed front to front right?"

"What is your point Tony?"

Tony sighed. "Look I know we don't discuss this, but frankly you're hot, and after the ring thing I don't think I could handle front to front action." Tony couldn't help the grin that crossed his face as Ziva turned bright red.

"Did I make the super Ninja blush?" he couldn't help but tease.

"Shut up Tony!"

"You're embarrassed. I embarrassed the super Ninja." He sang.

"If you do not shut up now you will not live to regret it." She threatened. She hadn't thought about the positioning until he had brought it up and she was finding herself absorbingly pleased with his admission. Which naturally, made her irritated as she didn't want to be pleased that Tony found her hot. She shouldn't care what her partner thought about her. The fact that she did only made her that much more annoyed.

"Just turn around." She said

Tony turned around and felt Ziva jump onto his back. He thought that it was cute that she had blushed, he wasn't sure she still had the capabilities to do so. He shook his head to clear it before jumping down the Zip line. Stupid Elsa was making him think things about his partner he shouldn't be thinking. See, counselling made things worse not better.

Mary was waiting for them at the bottom of the Zip line. "Yeah team NCIS! You made it through the obstacle course in 33 min and 45 seconds. We have a new record. I'm giving you top points for this one! Since you finished so early that gives you some extra free time. Lunch will be served at 12, enjoy the rest of your morning."

Once she dismissed them it didn't take them long to hightail it out of there.

"Enjoy your free time, see you at noon." Was all Gibbs said as he took off.

"Friends marathon?" Abby asked the group?

"Friends marathon." Tony agreed before heading up to their room dragging Ziva by the hand after him.

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**A/N: I'm back from Vacation did you miss me? :) Hope you're all having some Happy Holidays! Hope you enjoyed the chapter!!!**

** -Kris**


	9. Abby and Elsa

They had managed to make it through one episode of Friends before Abby started planning her strategy. She wanted to go find the Elsa girl Ziva was so weary of and see if she could give her any pointers on how to hook up her friends. She deliberated a while on whether or not she wanted to bring Timmy with her. While she knew she could use his help she was unsure if that would be breaking her promise to Ziva. Not to mention there was no telling if he would say anything to Tony. There were just some things in life Tony was better off not knowing. Especially since he was the king of commitment issues. She finally decided that Tim would be more help then hindrance and started planning a way to get them out of there without arising any suspicions.

"I'm going stir crazy." She finally said to the room at large. "Timmy, lets go for a walk."

"I would like a walk." Ziva said from where she was leaning next to Tony on the bed.

"Sorry." Abby told her. "You need to get caught up on Friends first."

Ziva let out a frustrated sigh. "Why must I keep watching TV? I do not even care for television that much."

"You wanna run into Agent Smith?" Tony casually asked her. He had to admit he liked the idea of Abby and McGee leaving the room for a bit. Perhaps he could figure out a way to sneak the kiss that wouldn't leave his mind now that Elsa had brought it up.

"He's got a point." Abby said. She caught Ziva's eye and looked pointedly towards Tim. She knew that Ziva would get the message and assume that she wanted to be alone with Tim for a little bit thus staying in the room with Tony.

Ziva got Abby's message and quickly relented. While she really would have liked to go for a walk it wouldn't hurt her to allow Abby and McGee some alone time. "You are right." She finally conceded. "I will stay here."

"Come on Timmy." Abby quickly said grabbing him by the arm and dragging him out of the room.

McGee was a little confused as to the entire exchange, however he was very used to dealing with Abby and so he allowed her to pull him out of the room. Once the door had closed he allowed himself to ask the question that had crossed his mind.

"What's going on Abby?"

She tossed him a grin and started hauling him down the hallway. "I need your help."

"With what?"

"We're going to see Elsa." She told him.

"Uh Abbs, who's Elsa?"

"That dear Timmy would be Ziva and Tony's counsellor."

"We're going to see a shrink? Why are we going to see a shrink?"

"Because McGee, we need her help."

McGee started to get very confused. Why was Abby dragging him to see a shrink? It was the partnerships that had mandatory counselling sessions. He didn't feel that he and Abby warranted some sessions with a counsellor. "What do we need her help for Abby?"

"To get Tony and Ziva to admit their undying love for each other and finally put us all out of our misery by hooking up."

McGee stopped dead in the hall causing Abby to stumble a little as she still had a firm grip on his arm.

"No way Abby."

"Timmy." She whined. "You have to help me."

"Abby, we're talking about a trained assassin and Tony here. They aren't your regular couple. If they found out we would be dead."

"They won't find out. That's why we need to see Elsa."

"Abby." McGee said very patiently. "Tony and Ziva are not toys for you to play with. You can't mess with people's feelings."

Abby gave an impatient sigh. "I'm not messing with their feelings. I'm helping them realize and work through the feelings they have. You can't honestly tell me you're not sick of this little cat and mouse game that they play. Tim you wrote a book about it for crying out loud!"

"Fine." He grudgingly agreed. "But if this goes bad I'm so not acknowledging any part of this." He allowed himself to be pulled forward again. "Gibbs better not find out." He muttered. "How do you know this Elsa girl is even going to help us?"

"She asked them in their session this morning to discuss why they aren't romantically involved."

"What?" was all that McGee said before he started laughing uncontrollably. "That answer alone would take 3 or 4 sessions."

"That was my reaction too." Abby admitted. "Ziva thought I was laughing at the thought of her and Tony together and got pretty defensive. I'm not supposed to be telling you this by the way."

Tim rolled his eyes. "Like I couldn't tell she had feelings for him back when we hadn't gotten him back yet and he was all she would talk about."

"That's my point Timmy. Not too mention how upset Tony was when she went back to Israel for a week. Now you see why we need operation Tiva-Match."

He turned his head to stare at her. "Tiva-Match?"

She just grinned and kept moving down the hall. They stopped in front of a door labelled Elsa Grude and Abby knocked on the door.

Elsa was unsurprised to find the Goth on the other side of her door. She had figured they would be meeting sooner or later and was looking forward to the exchange. She was surprised to find her accompanied by one of the other members of the NCIS team. She noticed he seemed a little embarrassed and she bet he was wondering how he had gotten dragged into this situation.

"Please come in." she said opening her door and allowing them to enter.

"I'm so glad you're here!" Abby said while entering the room. "I'm Abby and this is Tim and we need your help with operation Tiva-Match." She said all in one breathe.

Elsa raised an eyebrow. "Am I to assume that Tiva is the combination of Tony and Ziva?"

"I told you she was smart." Abby said to McGee and gave Elsa a giant smile.

"Why do you want to see your co-workers together?" she asked. She was all for helping Tony and Ziva get together however she wanted to see what their co-workers thought about their relationship. She would get a lot of insight from the people that worked with them the closest.

Abby walked over to the couch and sat down while she considered what she wanted to say. She had a strong feeling that Elsa was going to be on her side for this one, but she still wanted to make sure that she played her cards correctly.

"Because they should be together." She finally said. McGee sat down next to her and Elsa gestured for her to continue.

"They complete each other. It's almost scary. She's softer around him and he's stronger around her. It's like they bring out the parts of each other that are lacking when they're not around each other. When they get into one of their conversations the rest of the world disappears. They can communicate without talking. They read each other better then anyone I've ever met and yet they refuse to discuss anything with merit. They annoy each other all the time because that allows them to keep their distance. They belong together but they need help to see it." She finally finished.

"You seem to care about them a great deal." Elsa observed.

"They're my family and I want them to be happy." She answered. "I think that being together will make them happy."

"And what do you think Tim?" Elsa asked turning to Tim.

"I think that they'll kill me if they find out I'm involved." He answered honestly. "I also think that I agree for the most part with Abby. They're better people when they're together. We uh, had an issue over the summer and we're separated for 4 months, when we came back they both looked lost, that look disappeared after they were reunited for a couple of days."

"I happen to think you're both correct." Elsa told them. "I've worked with a lot of couples and partners over the years and from one session I could tell that they would do better together then apart. I do however think there are some issues that you're probably not aware of and that I wouldn't be able to discuss with you."

"See," Abby grinned. "This is why we need your help. You can tell us what we can subtly do to push them together when they're not in here with you."

Elsa smiled at Abby. "Would either of you be opposed to meeting with me a little after they've had their sessions to discuss strategy?"

"I'm in." Abby exclaimed. They both turned to look at Tim.

"Look," he said nervously "It's not that I don't want to help, I really do think they should be together, I just don't think either of you realize just how badly they'll kill me if they find out I'm involved at all. I mean, this kind of thing is expected from Abby but they'll torture me!"

Both women smiled at him. "Ah Timmy, I'll protect you." Abby offered patting his arm.

"Why do you feel that they would torture you?" Elsa inquired.

Abby snorted. "They would." She said. "He's not exaggerating. Ziva would scare him at every opportunity and Tony would just tease him until he cracked."

"Then they just can't find out." Elsa told them. "You need to create a cover story."

"Don't worry about it." Abby told her. "We'll be here. What did you want us to do today?"

"Well I need your help to get them to do their homework." She answered. "I asked them to kiss before there next session."

"What?" McGee exclaimed spluttering.

"Interesting that Ziva didn't mention that." Abby said with a calculated grin on her face. She turned to McGee. "Hey do you think they girl Tony is chasing could be Ziva then?" she asked.

"Maybe." he said after he had finished being shocked by the news. "He didn't complain at all when he was tied so closely to Ziva in the obstacle course."

"That was good work by the way." Elsa told Abby. "Forcing them into physical proximity is a good way to force them to deal with the physical aspect of their relationship. "What's this about Tony chasing a girl?"

"Tony is always chasing a girl." McGee answered rolling his eyes. "It's just what he does. This morning as we were waiting for the obstacle course he had the look in his eyes that usually signals he's chasing a skirt."

"So you would say that he's a bit of a womanizer."

"Yes." McGee answered at the same time that Abby said "No."

"Not since Jeanne." Abby answered. "He fell in love with his undercover assignment." She explained. "Naturally it didn't end well. I think it was Ziva that had to pick up the pieces. The rest of us weren't supposed to know how hurt he was. But since then he hasn't been nearly as bad as he once was. And lately he's very protective of Ziva."

"That is true." McGee conceded. "He hates it when anyone but him has to watch her back."

"All right, here's the plan for today then. I've asked them to kiss before the next session. I need the two of you to force them into as many tight situations as you can. See if you can drive up the chemistry a little bit and then leave them alone."

McGee groaned. "Easy for you to say. You're not the one that has to watch all this."

Elsa simply smiled at him. "No, I'm the one that gets to wade through all the sticky emotional stuff."

"Fair point." McGee agreed. "We should really get going before they get suspicious."

"It was really nice to meet you Elsa." Abby said wrapping her into a hug as she got up. "I'm really glad we're working together on this one."

"As am I Abby."

As Abby and McGee left Elsa sat back in her chair and smiled. She had gathered a bit more information on her favourite couple and now had insider help. There wasn't anything much better then that.

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**A/N: I know I'm sorry, no Tiva in this chapter. I really felt that Abby and Elsa needed to meet though...I promise Tiva in some later chapters! Thanks again for all your reviews! I really appreciate hearing from all of you! Honestly they make me happy and then I just want to stay home all day and write. Sadley...I must go to work :)**

** -Kris**


	10. Walks and Talks

"What was that all about?" Tony finally asked Ziva a few minutes after Abby and McGee has left the room.

"I think she wanted some alone time with Tim." Came Ziva's distracted response.

"Huh. And now you're upset cause your stuck in the room with me."

"I am not upset. I am simply bored. I do not care to watch TV all day."

Tony sat up so that he could look at his partner more fully. "Well we don't have to keep watching TV. I'm sure we could find something to do that could occupy our time."

"We are not going to make up." She responded not meeting his eyes.

Tony studied his partner with a look of confusion on his face. "What are we fighting about?" he asked her.

Now it was Ziva's turn to look confused. "We are not fighting. Are we?"

"Well you just said we're not going to make up. How can we make up if we're not fighting in the first place.?"

"I do not understand what you are talking about Tony." Ziva said getting exasperated by the conversation.

"That makes two of us then." He replied sliding back down on the bed to stare at the TV. They continued to watch friends for a few more minutes before Tony was sitting back up and staring at Ziva a look of triumph on his face.

"You meant make out. You're thinking about kissing me." He noticed the faint tinge of red that seemed to slide over her cheekbones.

"I do believe I said that I was not going to kiss you Tony."

"Yeah, but in order for you to have said that it means that you had to have been thinking about kissing me in the first place." He rambled the grin never leaving his face. "You're taking Elsa seriously."

Ziva let out a giant huff. "Just because she said it, does not mean that it's something that we have to do."

"But you're thinking about it." He taunted her.

"Clearly as are you." She responded her voice seeming to go up just a little bit. Not so much that anyone else would have noticed it; however Tony was used to reading the inflection in her voice and his grin seemed to get a little bit wider.

"You know we could just give it a shot and get it over with. No one would ever have to know."

"I do not thing it is such a great idea."

"Oh come on Ziva, loosen up a little bit. What's one little kiss between two consenting adults?"

"I know we do not discuss this, but frankly you are hot. I don't trust us." She responded throwing his previous words back in his face. However she didn't get the reaction she had hoped for.

"You think I'm hot?" He asked grinning at her. He had to admit, he was getting a gross amount of pleasure out of this entire conversation. He always had fun baiting her, but this was turning out to be way more fun then even he had expected. She was obviously thinking about the kiss as much as he was. He knew they were attracted to each other; ever since they had met there had been chemistry between them. He was sure however, that they could share a kiss and not have any lasting effects. They had after all, been a married couple while undercover. Other then a few uncomfortably nights they had gotten through that all right.

Ziva let out what sounded like a growl and got off the bed. "I am going for a walk." She told him briskly before heading to the door of the hotel room.

"Hold on and I'll come with you." He replied getting up off the bed.

"We are done talking about this." She told him as he walked over to where she was standing.

"For now." He replied a cheeky grin on his face as he held the door open for her.

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"This is going to be so much fun McGee!" Abby exclaimed as they left Elsa's office and headed back upstairs. "Operation Tiva is in effect! Now what do you think we can do to put them in some uncomfortable positions?"

"I'm still not sure this is such a great idea Abby."

"Else said they belong together and she's a professional. What more proof do you need Tim?"

"Gibbs isn't going to like this."

"Are you planning on telling him?"

"Well no-"

"Then how is it even an issue Tim? I'm trusting you to help me with this. Besides, maybe Tony won't pick on you as much is he and Ziva are together."

McGee snorted. "I'm pretty sure that there's nothing in this world that would cause Tony to stop picking on me."

"Then this will give you some material for your next book. Ha- think of the payback.."

"Well we need to come up with a really good excuse for sneaking off to see Elsa all the time."

"No problem, I've already got that one covered."

McGee stopped and looked at Abby for a moment. "You do?"

"Sure. It's pretty easy. We just act like we're the ones hooking up."

He stared at her incredulously for a moment. "You really are trying to get my killed by Gibbs aren't you?" His heart rate had sped up a little bit at the thought of he and Abby getting back together.

She gave him a smug smile. "You're just annoyed you didn't think of it first. Again, what Gibbs doesn't know doesn't hurt him."

"What don't I know Abby?" Came the voice of Gibbs from just down the hall behind them.

Abby turned panicked eyes to McGee. Dang Gibbs and his stupid ninja skills. If he found out this could ruin everything. They needed to make sure that Tony and Ziva had realized their feelings before Gibbs could stop them.

McGee groaned silently in his head. His boss had the worst timing of anyone he had every met. Or the best timing depending on how you wanted to look at things. He desperately searched his mind looking for a reason to explain away the last bit of their conversation.

"We were just talking about the new Blackberries Boss. Abby is thinking about buying you one and well," he gave a sheepish smile "You know how you are with technology."

Gibbs started at McGee and the younger agent looked back steadily. He knew they were lying, Abby looked far too ashamed to have been discussing technology but he was proud of his younger agent for holding his ground and so he let it go. Truth be told he wasn't so sure he really wanted to know anyway.

"Where's Tony and Ziva?" he finally conceded and asked.

"We left them upstairs when we decided to go for a walk." Abby responded threading her arm through his and leading him towards the room. "We were just about to go get them for lunch."

He allowed himself to be led upstairs by Abby. He wasn't too sure how he felt about his agents pairing off however he knew he was better off not saying anything in this case. They walked into the room and noticed that Tony and Ziva were gone.

"Guess they decided to go out." McGee said.

"You think McGee?" Gibbs sighed. "Let's go downstairs and get some lunch. We still have that thing with the CIA this afternoon."

"I don't think I want to play with the CIA." Abby told them. "They're not exactly known for playing fair."

"How bad can it be Abbs?" Tony asked her. "We're at a team building camp where all activities are monitored. What can they possibly do?"

"It's the CIA McGee. I'm sure we'll all be surprised with what they can do." Gibbs answered.

"Well I refuse to do anything where they tie me to any of them." Abby opposed vehemently. "There's just no way I want to be a part of anything like that."

"Don't worry Abbs." Gibbs assured her with a smile. "There's no way any of us are going to be tied to the CIA."

They headed down to the lunchroom and were surprised to see Tony and Ziva already at a booth saving them a seat. Abby made sure to slide in next to Ziva forcing her to move even closer to Tony in order to make room for her on the seat. McGee rolled his eyes at the gesture but said nothing as he sat down across from them with Gibbs.

Gibbs narrowed his eyes a little as Tony's arm draped across the back of the seat behind Ziva in order to create more room. He noticed Ziva move naturally into the space created and saw Abby's triumphant look. He realized instantly what his forensic scientist was up to. He turned his speculative gaze to McGee and knew that the younger agent could deny Abby nothing. He inwardly groaned. This was a disaster. He reflected a little bit on Tony and Ziva. He wasn't blind and could obviously see the chemistry that everyone else noticed. But was it enough to put them over the edge?

"What's everybody going to eat?" Tony asked the table at large before lightly tugging on one of Ziva's curls.

Gibbs shook his head. It was more then enough to put them over the edge. Somewhere along the line the chemistry had morphed into actual caring. The question was, would he allow them to break rule 12? He thought about it while they submitted their orders to the waiter that had appeared to serve them lunch. They weren't he and Jenny, he knew that, but the rule was there to keep them from getting hurt. He acknowledged that it was partially his fault. Where he had made sure that Tony and Kate were fully aware of rule 12 he had never really discussed it with Tony and Ziva. He watched as Ziva elbowed Tony in the ribs over some comment he had made causing Abby and McGee to laugh. He would let them break it he decided. If it meant that they were happy, as long as it didn't interfere with work he would allow them to break it.

"Why so silent Boss?" Tony finally asked as he had noticed that Gibbs hadn't been participating in the conversation.

"Just wondering how to get you to shut up." Was the response he got for his trouble. Gibbs gave him a smile to take the heat out of his words as the rest of the team laughed.

"Are we ready for team CIA this afternoon?" Abby asked everyone.

"Bring it on." Tony answered for the team. "I for one am ready to kick some CIA ass."

"To kicking CIA ass." Gibbs said raising his glass in a toast. He smiled as his team proceeded to clink glasses. It would be a fun afternoon.

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**A/N: Sorry it's been a bit since I've updated...I'm struggeling with some writters block I do believe. Hopefully it's cleared up and I can get you another chapter soon! Thanks so much for all your reviews! I'm happy that you seem to be enjoying the story! I hope you all have a GREAT New Years!!!**

** -Kris**


	11. Laser Tag Round 1

They once again assembled just outside the rec room to wait and see what there instructions were going to be. Team CIA ambled up a few minutes later. The two teams stood there taking stock of one another. Neither one was known for its interagency cooperation. In fact the truth of the matter was that Gibbs was even more infamous for not cooperating then the CIA. It wasn't too long before Mary joined them.

"Good afternoon teams. I have a special surprise for you for this afternoon's exercise. Camp Waterford has just recently built a laser tag arena and you're going to be the first people to test it out."

Both teams' faces lit up with the exception of Ziva. This was going to be fun. There wasn't going to be any hand holding or awkward situations with laser tag. They would even have the opportunity to shoot each other. Tony's grin got even larger when he realized that they had Ziva as a secret weapon. She could probably take down the entire team!

"What is laser tag?" Ziva finally leaned over and asked Tony.

"You've never played laser tag?" he asked her not quite believing that Ziva had never played.

She shrugged her shoulders. "We do not have time for game playing at Mossad." Was her answer.

"We get guns with Lasers in them. When you shoot a member of the opposite team their gun freezes and disables. The objective is to break into their home base and disable the entire team by shooting a specific target."

Ziva's face lit up in a giant smile. "We get to shoot the CIA?" she asked not sure if Tony was believable.

"You got it." Abby responded. "We've got this on in the bag. Between you and Gibbs they don't stand a chance."

"Uh Ziva," McGee inquired, "If you've never played laser tag what did you use in Mossad for target training?"

Ziva stared at McGee for a moment before letting a slightly mischievous grin cross her face. "We used real bullets McGee." Her smile grew wider at the uncomfortable look on his face.

"Before we go" Mary interrupted "We need to do our team introductions. Team NCIS you first."

Gibbs quickly introduced his team leaving off the Agent/Officer titles. Not that it mattered he mused to himself. The CIA probably had a dossier on each of his agents done up before they came to the activity.

"I'm Agent Hall." The team leader of the CIA started. "These are Agents Bunt, Hernandez, Lambert and Small." He said pointing to each member in team.

Tony snickered. "Agent Small." He said under his breath. It was only a second before Gibbs hand made connection with the back of his head.

"All right teams, please follow me to the laser tag area." Mary said before heading off in an unknown direction.

They trooped after her no one speaking. Everyone was excited to see the laser tag area. Both teams were sure that they would beat the other one. They headed into a small room where the harnesses and guns were set up. Red team on one side, blue on the other.

"The first round we're going to play will be mixed teams." Mary told them. Everyone's mouths dropped in disbelief. They had assumed it would be NCIS versus the CIA and everyone had been more then happy with the arrangement. Mary smiled at the look on their faces. "Don't worry, you will get a chance to play against each other, but the first round will be mixed teams. I have everyone's name in a hat, when I call your name please stand by the wall with the color your assigned. Ok, our red team will be Agents Hernandez, Small, Hall, David and Scuito."

Tony groaned. The last thing he wanted was to be in the opposite side as Ziva. She would hunt him down and there was no doubt in his mind that she would beat him. This was not good. Not good at all.

"That leaves our Blue Team of Agents Bunt, Lambert, Gibbs, McGee and DiNozzo. Let me explain the rules. A chest shot will put you out of commission for 30 seconds, a head shot will keep you out of the game for a full minute. You're objective is to reach the other teams home base through the maze and hit the Bull's Eye that's strategically placed inside. Each Bull's Eye has to be hit with a total of 5 shots from at least 3 different people before you can win the game. We spared no expense with this thing, so the maze actually changes with every round." She said with a grin. "So this particular lay out will only work for this particular game. Once you've suited each team will enter in a separate door that will take them to their home base. You have 5 minutes to strategize once you get there before the game will start. Your stats will also be recorded as you play. Most hits, how many shots you took etc. Good luck."

The two teams quickly suited up and headed in the opposite directions. Tony was impressed. He had played laser tag on many occasions and this course was huge. He took note of all the crooks and crannies that a person could hide in. This was not going to be an easy game. It took them at least 10 minutes before they reached their home base.

"What's the plan boss?" Tony asked excited to start playing.

Gibbs looked to agent Bunt. "You have any snipers or shooters on the other team?" He asked them.

"Agent Hernandez is a sniper." He responded. "However all CIA agents go through a mandatory shooting program."

"All right then. It's safe to say that they'll leave Hernandez back at base to cover the defence. My money's on them sending Ziva in as the offense. DiNozzo and McGee I want you to hang back and play defence. Bunt and Lambert you're with me. We'll go in on the offense. How silent can you move?"

Agent Lambert grinned at him. "We're CIA sir."

Gibbs rolled his eyes. "All right then let's go."

"But the game hasn't started yet." McGee protested.

Tony shook his head as they ignored him and headed out into the maze. "Really Probie? You expected them to wait for the official bell?"

McGee spluttered for a moment. "Well we need to find someplace to hide"

They both looked around for a moment. "Here probie, you go behind these pillars. I'm going to actually hide in the base. Ziva should be here any minute." It was then that the bell went off to signal that the game had started. The lights shut off illuminating the room with black lights. Loud music suddenly started pumping into the room. This was going to be fun Tony decided as hunkered down and waited for the crazy Ninja to show up. This was going to be fun.

Ziva wove her way through the maze quietly. Mossad had taught her how to be soundless and invisible and she knew that she had the upper hand in this area. They had left Agent Hernandez as their defensive along with Abby. She snorted, it was probably the most obvious thing they could have done. She knew that Gibbs would be on the offensive and she had no doubt that he could probably take out Hernandez long enough for them to get into the base. Hopefully the shooting tips she had been passing along to Abby for some time now would pay off.

Agents Small, Hall and herself had decided to split up and head over to the other base in different directions. Hopefully that would give them at least one chance of making it all the way over. She crept quietly along; although the music was loud enough she could have been an elephant and no one would hear her moving. A movement to the left caught her eye and she ducked around a pillar just as agent Bunt was walking through. She aimed her gun carefully and shot him in the head. She noticed with some satisfaction that all the lights lit up on his helmet meaning she had hit her target before she quickly moved on.

She made it to the other side of the maze having met no one else and quickly took stock of the situation. There was no one in plain sight however her instincts told her that there should at least be 2 people hanging back ready to defend. She decided to check out the perimeters to see if she could find agents Small and Hall and plan a small attack.

Gibbs was annoyed. Bunt had been careless and had already sustained a shot to the head. He hadn't even seen who had shot him which led Gibbs to believe it had been Ziva that had disabled his agent. They had made it to the other side of the maze and found each other easily enough with the exception of Bunts head shot. He looked around. Abby was standing alone almost out in the open singing along with the blaring music. Obviously she was the bait. Hernandez would be in a position to shoot anyone who got close enough to take a shot at Abby. The key then, was to not shoot Abby but find a way around her.

He sent agent Bunt to check the perimeters seeing as how he was already disabled for about another 30 seconds while he tried to gage where Hernandez was hiding. He was probably going to have to send someone out as bait to try and shoot Abby. He would rather track down Hernandez without using bait, but his options were limited. He waited until Bunt got back and explained the plan to the two men.

Agent Bunt moved forward slowly. He knew Agent Gibbs was annoyed that he had already been shot in the head. He was annoyed with himself for not even having seen the shooter. There was no way that someone with his training should have completely missed the person that had shot him. Now he was being sent out as bait to see if he could take out the agent Gibbs called Abby. Not that she was even an agent. They had done their homework after all. Hopefully he could get at least one good shot in before Hernandez took him out again. He edged out a little further into the almost open space. He hid behind a pillar for a second before taking aim. Before he had even managed to pull the trigger his vest had lit up. Damn it he had been shot in the chest. He took off back into the maze. Hopefully Gibbs had gotten a clear view of whoever had shot him.

Abby smiled to herself. That had been too easy. They hadn't even needed Hernandez to take a shot. Ziva's shooting techniques were clearly very good. She started singing again. It wouldn't be too long before Gibbs tried again. Her silver haired fox was not a quitter.

Gibbs cursed under his breath. Abby had shot Bunt. Clearly he had underestimated how much time his scientist had been spending with Ziva. Bunt hadn't even seen it coming. He would have to try something else.

Ziva had managed to find agents Hall and Small and they were now discussing strategy. Obviously there were agents hiding, there was no way Gibbs would have left the home base completely deserted with Ziva on an opposite team. They decided to send out agent Small to see if he could lure out whoever was hiding and perhaps one of the other two agents could get a shot in. He hadn't gotten too far in before they saw a laser beam come from the right and his helmet lit up. He headed back towards them but they had effectively determined where at least one of the agents was hiding.

He headed back in and agent Hall snuck off in the other direction determined to take out their mystery shooter. Ziva snuck quietly in the other direction. She knew whoever was hiding would be distracted by agent Hall. She had quietly managed to sneak into their home base before she spotted him. Tony. She smiled to herself. Gibbs had been wise. If there was anyone at all who had a chance of guessing what she might do it would be Tony. She spotted the Bull's Eye and snuck in behind a pillar. Tony hadn't spotted her yet. She knew she would only have a few seconds to get off the 3 shots that she was allowed before Tony would find a way to stop her. She tensed up and waited.

Tony was not as oblivious to Ziva as he had allowed her to believe. He had known the minute she had entered into their home base. Not because he had seen her, more like he had sensed her entering. This was frankly a little scary. He had never been that in tune with anyone before in his life. He knew that she thought he didn't know she was there. He would only have a few seconds to stop her.

Ziva leaned up and swung out to shoot the target. She was mildly surprised to find a grinning Tony blocking her way. She quickly shot off a round to his head and smiled when the lights started flashing on his helmet. She quickly shot off a round at the Bull's Eye and was satisfied to see the light flashing before Tony was picking her up and throwing her over his shoulder facing away from the Bull's Eye. She tried struggling but his hold was firm against her. He quickly started walking out of the Home base and she struggled harder.

Tony was enjoying this. He had run out of options the moment Ziva had disabled him and so he had resorted to the time old task of simply picking her up. The move had taken her by surprise or he would have never been able to de-mobilize her like that. It was good to know that he could surprise her. He was currently holding her over his shoulder, one arm holding her legs down and the other tight on her back keeping her bent over. He could feel her struggling and found it immensely pleasing that he was strong enough to hold down the Mossad agent. He quickly headed out into the Maze, not wanting her to be able to access the Bull's Eye when he finally decided to let her down.

Ziva was more then a little annoyed. She should have seen this coming. Of course he would just pick her up and carry her out of there. Technically there was nothing in the rules about physically restraining someone. She would need to remember that for the next round. They had gotten pretty far into the maze before Tony put her down trapping her body between his and a pillar. She noticed that he positioned himself carefully to avoid getting a knee in a sensitive area of his anatomy. He was right to avoid that she thought.

"Sorry crazy ninja but I can't let you back there to get in another shot." He told her his mouth practically on her ear due to the loud music."

"If you do not let me go you will be sorry." She responded.

"Not going to happen." He told her his breath sending shivers down her spine. She quickly racked her brain trying to find a way to distract him so that she could get back to her team.

"When this is over I will kill you." She told him simply.

"I don't think so. Then you'd be out of a partner and you would have to train someone new." He said again into her ear.

She was getting distracted by how close he was. Every time she inhaled she got a whiff of the scent that was uniquely his. His face was a mere inch or two from his. Suddenly the idea of kissing him was back in her head and she wanted nothing more then to lean up and place her lips on his.

He noticed the moment she stopped focusing on the game and his thought suddenly went in the same direction. An inch was all it would take to close the gap and kiss her. He started leaning forward his lips had barely grazed hers and the lights went back on.

The lights' turning back on was the focus that they had needed. This wasn't the time or the place to start listening to Elsa. Tony quickly backed away the graze still burning his lips. It was that moment that he realized one kiss wasn't going to be enough.

Ziva's lips were burning. If one little graze felt like that then she was really in trouble. They quickly locked eyes, both agreeing to not talk about this and headed back towards the home base. It was time to find out who had won this round.

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**A/N: Well you almost got a Tiva kiss. Their lips did touch so that counts as a kiss right? Hahaha, I'm sure you're all hating me right now, sorry it can't be helped. The story writes itself and it just wasn't the time for a real kiss. There's still a few things they need to discover. It will come though...**

** -Kris**


	12. Laser Tag Round 2

"Good Job!" Mary stood clapping at the entrance to the maze.

"Who won?" Tony called out.

"I'll have your results at a the end of all three sessions." She told everyone.

"You have got to be freaking kidding me. We can't even know who won?" Tony said in a loud whisper to Ziva.

Gibbs walked over and issued yet another slap to the back of his head. "We did DiNozzo. Now stop complaining before she decides she wants to mark us down."

A wide smile made its way across Tony's face. "You hear that Zee? We won."

"You wouldn't have won if you hadn't cheated." She hissed back at him.

"I didn't cheat. You're just jealous that you didn't win." At this point they started drawing the attention of the other players.

"You cheated. I wasn't given a fair chance to play for my team."

Gibbs let out a sigh before hitting them both in the head. "I can't take the two of you anywhere. What's the problem now?"

"Tony cheated." Was Ziva's quick reply.

"I didn't cheat at all. She's just mad that I stopped her from hitting the Bull's Eye more then once."

"You know what, I don't care. You've just earned yourself an additional counselling session."

Both of their eyes went wide and Tony started spluttering. "But Boss-"

"I don't want to hear it." He told them. "If you can't stop arguing you'll earn another one. Are we clear on this?"

"Yes Boss." Came Tony's winded reply.

"David?" He locked eyes with Ziva for a few moments neither one backing down.

"Yes." She finally relented.

"All right then are we ready to play round two?" They heard Mary call from the front? "Ok, our new blue team will consist of agents DiNozzo, Scuito, McGee, David and Hall leaving the red team with Bunt, Lambert, Small, Hernandez and Gibbs." Her smile grew impossibly wider. "Well, this should be interesting. Please leave the maze and those of you who need to switch suits please do so. Remember that this is a movable maze and the course will not be the same when you re-enter."

They trooped back out to the changing area where McGee looked a little pale.

"What's wrong Probie?" Tony asked "You're not looking too good."

"You do realize that it's us versus Gibbs right?"

"Sure do." Came his quick reply. "Should be fun considering he's taught us everything we know."

"That's the problem Tony. He's going to know everything we would do."

Ziva rolled her eyes at McGee. "It is just a game Tim. It will be all right. Besides while Gibbs may have taught me many things, he has not taught me everything." She said with a cryptic smile.

"All right back into the maze." Mary called out. "You have 5 minutes to plan strategy before the game starts."

They walked back through the maze to their home base taking notice of all the new changes that had occurred in the maze.

"All right." Agent Hall began, "Gibbs is your team leader, so you're going to know the best way to defeat him. What do you suggest?"

"Give up." Abby muttered under her breath.

"I'm sorry Agent Scuito, I didn't catch that."

"Split up." Abby said a little bit louder. "Gibbs will stay behind. It's his team coming to his home base and he's going to know our moves pretty well. I suggest we send in you agent Hall as the offense because he won't expect it."

"Gibbs expects everything." McGee muttered, "But I agree with Abby. You'll have the best chance at catching him surprised."

"Tony and Ziva should go with you." Abby continued. "Next to you Ziva has the best chance at surprising him, and she works best with Tony." At Hall's questioning eyebrow Abby shrugged her shoulders and said "They can communicate without talking. It comes in kinda handy when you don't want someone to know you're there."

"All right then. Agent Hernandez's is our team's sniper. Stay out of his rang. The best defence you're going to have is to pick them off before they get in here."

"We're on it." Abby told him before He, along with Tony and Ziva disappeared into the maze ahead of them just before the lights turned off and the music started. "Bring it on." She muttered to herself taking position behind a low wall, she would love to get another shot in at agent Bunt.

Ziva walked quietly out into the maze Tony right beside her. Her mind kept drifting back to the almost kiss and she cursed herself for being so weak. How was she going to be able to keep doing her job if she was distracted every time she was anywhere near Tony. She was ALWAYS near Tony. On the other hand she was also severely disappointed that they had been interrupted. Her lips had buzzed from a mere graze of his lips on hers and she knew that a full out kiss would be amazing. She didn't however want him to kiss her because someone else had told him too. She wanted for him to want it, and her conflicting emotions were driving her slowly insane.

Tony was keeping pace with his partner and was thinking much the same thoughts she was. He wanted that kiss. He wanted it way more then he had ever thought he would. The "feelings" he had been working so hard to repress had seemed to come to the forefront of his mind with that one little graze and he knew that one kiss wouldn't be enough. He had a sneaking suspicion that Ziva felt the same way, he hadn't been completely oblivious to all her hints, but he had just came to the conclusion that he was ready for something more. He had banked his feelings since the Jeanne situation as he now liked to refer to it; however he was now ready to let them out. The trick would be convincing Ziva that he wanted her because he wanted her, and not because Elsa had told them to hook up.

Agent Hall soon gestured for them to find cover and Tony dived into a crack between two pillars Ziva going in right behind him. Once again they found themselves face to neck as there was no room to move once they had both squished in there.

Ziva inhaled Tony's scent and found herself surprisingly grateful to be squished in next to her partner. She was always pleasantly surprised whenever she got a chance to be close enough to smell him. His cologne was subtle and it suited him and it drove her absolutely wild. She tilted her head back a little so she could look up at him.

Ziva's breath on Tony's neck was going to drive him slowly insane. It seemed that every time she exhaled onto his neck it got that much harder for him to breath. This was not the time or the place, heck he still needed to make sure she knew what his intentions were, but if they didn't get out of that space soon he was going to jump her right here on the laser tag course. She tilted her head back to look at him and he saw that her eyes were just a little bit darker then normal. He forced himself to start thinking about Ducky's autopsy bay.

Ziva noticed the look on Tony's face and she wondered if for a second he was finding this as hard as she was. As suddenly as it had all started agent Hall was telling them to come out and she was no longer pressed against him. She felt the loss immediately however quickly started back out into the course.

They hadn't gotten very far before agent Hall stopped them. "Perhaps we should take out their offense before they get to the home base." He told them.

"How tall are these walls?" Ziva asked the two men.

"About 10, 10 ½ feet." Agent Hall responded.

"Tony, could you hold me up if I stood on your shoulders? We could take them out like a sniper as they will not be expecting a shot from above."

"Sure thing sweet cheeks but you'll have to move fast. Once they spot you you're a sitting duck about the wall."

"That's a good plan." Agent Hall conceded. "I'm going to head for their home base. I want you to head there as soon as you disable them."

Tony and Ziva headed back into the maze in the opposite direction with a new purpose in mind. It wasn't long until they heard the other team murmuring among themselves. They hid about two walls back and Tony crouched down allowing Ziva to climb onto his back and then his shoulders. Slowly he stood upright holding onto Ziva's calf's as she balanced on his shoulders.

Ziva stood up slowly taking in the surroundings and locating her three targets. She was unsurprised to find that Gibbs was not around them and neither was agent Hernandez. They had left both snipers back at their home base. Quickly and efficiently she took aim and shot all three agents in the helmets before quickly dropping from her feet and sitting on Tony's shoulders.

Tony absorbed Ziva's weight as she dropped from standing to sitting on his shoulders and quickly took back off into the maze his hands holding her knees so she wouldn't fly off. They had made it pretty far back before he allowed himself to stop and crouched back down to the floor allowing Ziva to slide off his shoulders.

Ziva found herself slowly sliding down Tony's back as she de-mounted from his shoulders. She took her time allowing herself to brush the whole of his back before taking a step back. She knew she was teasing them both, but once he turned around to look at her she knew it was worth it.

Tony was pretty sure his eyes had glazed over. That little trick of hers had made him supremely uncomfortable and he could tell by the look on her face that she knew it. He resolved to get even at some point in the day before heading back towards the other teams home base.

It wasn't long before the found agent Hall and quickly wasted no time in advising him that both snipers were hiding here at the home base. They quickly took stock of the situation and realized that it was going to be hard to find exactly where they were hiding. There were many walls and pillars placed around the home base, acting almost like a shield. They were going to have to send someone out as bait.

"Tony." Was Ziva's quick reply when the question of who would be bait came up.

"Why me?" he asked her a look of irritation on his face.

"You are the one Gibbs knows the best." Was her simple reply.

"Fine." He huffed. "Never say I'm not willing to take one for the team." He said before slowly walking towards the home base ducking behind walls and pillars as he went. He found himself almost in the home base before he started to get a little concerned. Clearly Gibbs was not taking the bait. He entered the home base and had shot and hit the Bull's Eye before the attack occurred. He suddenly found Gibbs standing directly in front of him and before he could even blink he was demobilized. He thought about physically dragging his boss out of the home base, but figured that that trick would only work on one of the girls, plus he may just loose his job.

"You know I'm just going to go back and tell them where you are right boss?"

"I don't think so DiNozzo."

"What do you mean you don't think so?"

"I think that you'll stay right here."

"What? How is that a good idea?" At the look on Gibbs face Tony relented. "Fine. But let it show for the records that I really don't like this idea. Also, Ziva will come for me."

Gibbs rolled his eyes. "It's Laser Tag DiNozzo. You're hardly a hostage. And I'm counting on Ziva coming to get you. Now sit."

Tony sat down and paid attention to where Gibbs went to hide. "Huh." He thought to himself, I didn't even see that crevice when I came in. He started to look around to see if he could find where agent Hernandez was hiding. He was medley disappointed to discover that there was no way the other agent was hidden in here. He started to think about how long it would take for his suit to re-activate. Perhaps he could shoot Gibbs before Ziva got in.

Ziva and Hall waited patiently for Tony to come back out. "Gibbs is holding him hostage." Ziva finally concurred. "He's in the home base."

Hall blew out a breath. "Well where's Hernandez then. We need to know where he is if this has any chance of working."

"Why don't we split up and each head in a different direction? It will eventually come down to who can shoot faster once we are all inside anyway. The suits only stay deactivated for 1 minute. They can't keep us from shooting the Bull's Eye indefinitely.

"All right you're on. Good luck." He told her before heading to the right. She quickly took off to the left and started to sneak into the home base. It wasn't long before she saw Tony simply sitting on the floor leaning on a wall. She ducked behind a pillar and debated on how to get his attention. It had been over a minute and so she knew his suit was re-activated. She snorted, he was probably too afraid of Gibbs to shoot him. Even if it was just laser tag. She leaned around the pillar and willed Tony to look at her.

Tony knew Ziva was there. Once again he sensed her before he saw her; however he caught the movement out of the corner of his eye. He didn't want to give away to Gibbs that she was there, and he knew the moment he lifted his gun Gibbs would shoot him so he went for another tactic.

"Can I go back out now Gibbs? How do you know Hernandez hasn't already de-mobilized the rest of my team? This is boring." He whined to Gibbs.

Ziva noticed in which direction Tony was whining and instantly realized that Tony knew she was there and was telling her where Gibbs was. She knew it was going to come down to who could shoot faster and was willing to wait.

Tony was seriously bored. This was not how he envisioned playing laser tag at all. Both Ziva and Gibbs were extremely stubborn and could both be infinitely patient when it called for it. He made a snap decision and shot the target getting his second shot in before Gibbs could shoot him. As soon as Gibbs shot him to immobilize his suit he headed for the door acting as a shield for Ziva. Gibbs couldn't get Ziva through him.

Gibbs instantly realized his mistake in having held Tony hostage. He misjudged his competitiveness over his desire to please his boss. He knew it was over just as soon as Tony had shot the target. He was now acting as Ziva's shield and Gibbs wasn't going to be able to shoot her. That wouldn't stop him from trying though.

Ziva acted just as quickly as Tony came to the door. She immediately kept herself behind him using him as her shield. As soon as they were close enough she shot the target once, twice and then Gibbs was there and things started to get trickier.

Tony was playing the human shield and his sole goal was to keep Gibbs from de-mobilizing Ziva. It wasn't easy. Gibbs kept darting around holding his gun off to the side trying to shoot Ziva anywhere that would hit her vest. "Step away DiNozzo." He growled.

Ziva finally got her last shot off to the target a split second before one of Gibbs shots hit her vest and the lights immediately came back on.

Tony was immediately a reciprocate of a head slap.

"What was that for Boss?"

"Cheating." Was all he said with a grin on his face. "Good work team."

"We beat you boss." Tony dared to say.

"I know. You did good." Was his answer before heading back to where they could hear Mary calling. He stopped and turned back to look at them "However if you ever pull a stunt like that on me again I won't stop at a head slap."

Tony and Ziva exchanged grins as they hurried to keep up with him.

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**A/N: Gibbs was beaten by his own team :) Still have the NCIS vs. CIA team to go...**

**Sorry still no kiss... I know you're all dying for it but I apparently feel the need to taunt you a little longer. **

** -Kris**


	13. NCIS vs CIA

"We beat Gibbs!" were the first words out of Tony's mouth when he spotted Abby and McGee.

"Seriously?" Abby asked. "We really beat Gibbs? How did you do it?"

"Teamwork." Tony said proudly while Ziva rolled her eyes. "He didn't have a chance."

"You say something DiNozzo?" came the gruff voice of Gibbs from right behind him.

"Uh, no boss. I was just telling them how hard you were to beat." He said wincing as Gibbs slapped his head. "You know, I really think I might be getting brain damage here."

"You can not develop something you already have." McGee told him with a smirk.

"All right Teams" Mary clapped. "We have one last round to play. Team NCIS you'll be our blue team and CIA you'll be red. The same rules apply. Everyone back to the changing room please."

They all trooped after her a sense of urgency in the air. It was all or nothing this round, they were playing for the pride of their agency. Gibbs and Hall quickly swapped suits before shaking each others hand and wishing each other luck. They headed their separate ways back into the maze.

"What are their weaknesses?" Gibbs asked his team as they headed back out.

"With all due respect sir, I haven't actually spent enough time with them to figure it out." McGee quickly answered.

"Hall is not good at strategy." Ziva offered as they all turned to stare at her. "He asked us what we thought you would do as a cover. Hernandez is good at long shots, but not close contact. Bunt is not very observant. He is quick once things are pointed out however he does not immediately see things on his own. Small is left handed and so if you go in to his right you will have a better change and Lambert has no discernable faults that I have seen.

Abby, McGee and Tony simply stared at her with their mouths open.

"I am a trained observer. That is what you do. A split second is the difference between life and death in some situations." She muttered somewhat crossly.

"Good job Ziva. They're just annoyed they didn't see it." Gibbs consoled her. "So what's our plan?"

"Boss?" Tony inquired.

"You deaf DiNozzo? You don't actually expect me to be the one that always comes up with the answers do you? Nope, this one is up to you guys and if we loose it's on your head."

"Great." Tony muttered. "You just don't think we can beat the CIA."

"Sure we can." Abby exclaimed. "I for one vote Ziva team leader since Gibbs has stepped down."

"I'll second that motion." Echoed McGee.

"Great. Now I'm taking orders from a crazy ninja chick." Tony muttered. "Ow,ow,ow." He yelped as Ziva had grabbed his hand in a pressure point and had him dropped to the ground. "I take it back!" He whimpered before he was let back up. "Man, you should just do that on the CIA and they'll just give up." He continued to mutter darkly shooting his partner a dirty look.

"What do you want to do Ziva?" McGee asked interrupting Tony's ramblings.

Ziva paused to consider their options for a few moments before coming up with a battle plan. "I will stay behind on defence." She decided. "Gibbs, Abby and McGee will be our offence."

"What?" Tony protested. "I don't want to get left behind!"

"Fine." Ziva ground out. "I don't want you here either. I changed my mind, Tony goes and Abby stays." Actually Tony's whinging had given her some perspective. It probably wouldn't be wise to remain along guarding the home base with Tony. The way their day was shaping up they would probably be too distracted to even see someone coming much less stop them from getting in. Better to be alone with Abby then alone with Tony.

As soon as Ziva made the change Tony regretted his whining. He hadn't actually thought she would separate them and as sad as it was he would rather be bored in the home base with her, then out in all the action with Gibbs and McGee. He allowed himself a split second to contemplate when that had changed and then quickly re-directed his thoughts to the game at hand. It's not like it was a permanent separation, they would see each other shortly.

Abby was confused. She wanted to stay behind with Ziva, but she really wanted Tony to stay behind with Ziva. She couldn't get them into any tight situations if they weren't even in the same area. She debated suggesting that McGee stay behind with her, but then considered that Gibbs would be out there with them anyway and decided that in the long run it didn't really matter. There were plenty of hours left in the day to force them together. Besides, she really wanted to win and she knew that with Ziva in charge they would have the best chance.

The lights suddenly went out and the music came blaring on and Tony, McGee and Gibbs headed back out into the darkness of the maze.

"How do you want to set up the defence?" Abby asked.

"It should be easy enough." Ziva told her. She pointed to some pillars that had been re-arranged when the maze had shifted. "These are not permanent." She said picking one up. "We will simply hide the target."

"How has no one noticed that?" Abby asked staring in awe at Ziva rearranging their home base.

"You are trained to think that the rules state that nothing can be moved. In reality there has been nothing said about moving the pieces of the maze." The two women quickly worked to re-arrange their home base providing the best defensive coverage they could while also hiding their target. Now all they had to do was wait.

Back in the maze Tony, Gibbs and McGee were waiving their way between walls and pillars on their way to the CIA's home base.

"Ziva said you cheated on the first round DiNozzo. How?"

"I don't know that I would say that I cheated Boss."

"What did you do DiNozzo?"

"She was going to shoot the target and had immobilized me. I didn't have too many options left so I picked her up and carried her out of the base."

Gibbs stopped walking to stare at his agent. "You picked her up and carried her out of the base?"

"You picked Ziva up? How did you restrain her?" McGee asked completely awed that Tony would have dared such a thing. Abby was going to love that.

"I just held her down McCurious. It's not like she's a giant."

"Yeah, but she fights dirty." He replied a note of reverence in his voice.

"Enough. So that's twice you've physically restrained someone during this game?" Gibbs asked gruffly.

"Well, technically yes." DiNozzo answered a little sheepishly.

"We'll use that." Gibbs told them continuing to walk again. "They won't expect a physical attack."

"Attack boss?" McGee said picking up on the choice of words. "I'm not so sure physically attacking the CIA is such a great idea."

"We're not actually attacking them McGee. It's a figure of speech." Tony rolled his eyes at the younger agent. "This is a team building camp. We wouldn't get too many points for hurting the other team. Although I would consider loosing some to have a go at agent Sacks."

Gibbs let out a snort but kept walking. It wasn't too long before they had reached the perimeters of the red home base. They couldn't see anyone guarding it however they hadn't really expected too.

"All right here's the plan. DiNozzo and I will sandwich McGee between us. We'll head into the home base. Hopefully you'll remain untouched and will be able to get your 3 shots off at the target. Once you've made your 3 we'll retreat and come back out here to get ready for round 2. This will only work once so be prepared to move quickly" They quickly got into position and headed into the maze.

"This is boring." Abby was complaining to Ziva. "Honestly where is everybody. This is the most boring round I've played yet." The women were waiting for anyone from the red team to show up. They had effectively re-arranged their base so that they were both protected and elevated. If anyone did show up Ziva would be able to effectively pick them off without much effort.

"So, how are things going with Tony?" Abby finally decided to ask. Since they were stuck sitting there they might as well talk about something interesting.

"I do not know what you are talking about." Ziva answered never taking her eyes off the view from the small crack in their shelter where she had placed her gun.

"You so know what I'm talking about. You're supposed to talk about why you're not together. Which then begs the interesting question of why aren't you together?"

Ziva sighed. "He is my partner Abby. There is no reason for us to be together."

"Oh you must mean other then the fact that you're clearly in love with each other. Because you know, other then that you're right. Why would you get together?"

"Abby it is not as simple as you make it out to be. Besides, no one has said anything about love." She said still not looking anywhere but outside of their shelter.

"Ziva, no one has to say anything about love. We can all see it." Abby was getting slightly annoyed with all of this. If everyone else could see it why couldn't they? If they did not manage to get anything resolved on this trip then she was just going to lock them in her lab until something happened.

"Abby, he is chasing someone else. You saw his look this morning."

"How do you know it's not you if you haven't talked about it?"

Ziva suddenly put her finger to her mouth in a silence motion. Abby rolled her eyes. With the music this loud there was no way anyone would have ever heard them however she knew that Ziva's training would have drummed into her the instinct to be silent. She watched in awe as 4 red team members crept out from behind a wall and almost laughed when Ziva shot each of them in the head before they had gotten more then 2 feet out. Abby shook her head. "You think the last one would have realized what was going on."

Ziva gave one of her rare giant smiles before turning her eyes back out towards the walls. She was gearing up and pre-paring for someone to come back out when all the lights came back on and the music stopped.

"I think that means we've won." Abby said jumping up out of their hiding spot and doing a happy dance. "Way to go boys!"

They quickly headed back out to the area where they knew Mary would be waiting for them and sure enough the guys were there shortly big grins on their faces.

"Congrats team NCIS." Mary clapped as they all filtered into the area. "That was a very quick run."

"You know they cheated right?" Agent Hall asked clearly disgruntled at not having won.

"Wait," Tony said "Is the CIA accusing us of cheating?"

"The only rule I gave was that the target had to be hit 5 times by two different people." Mary said. "There were no rules for anything else."

"You have got to be kidding." Agent Bunt complained. "I demand a re-match."

"Perhaps at the end of the week." Mary smiled. "You're all free to go. Enjoy the rest of your day!"

They all headed back to the changing room, the CIA disgruntled and NCIS enthused with their victory.

"Celebration Dinner?" Abby asked the group.

"You're on!" Tony cheerfully agreed. "We'll take my car though. I'm not riding in the back again."

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**A/N: So I realize this chapter wasn't the best...It had been awhile since I updated and I wanted to get something out there. Also I don't know how many of you realized...but I changed the laser tag rules :) I had to go back and change the first laser tag chapter so that they would match. Thanks for all your sweet reviews, I really enjoy the feedback. I know you're all dying for a Tiva kiss and we'll get there :)**

** -Kris**


	14. Celebratory Dinner

**A/N: For Your Royal Highness who's having a bad week.**

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Once again Gibbs had declined the offer to go out and eat with his team. There had been a brief debate on why they even had to go out (McGee had thought the cafeteria would be just fine) however it was decided that it would be more fun to have a celebratory dinner somewhere else (Tony didn't want Elsa suddenly dropping in to analyze them).

After more debate it was decided that they would take both cars. Abby had found a bar not far from a restaurant and wanted to go dancing afterwards and Ziva was hesitant due to having to be up so early for their session with Elsa the next morning. Tony gallantly offered to take his car as well and then they could decide what they wanted to do after dinner.

The ride over to the restaurant was quiet in Tony's car. Both were trying valiantly to think about anything other then each other. Both were failing miserably. Tony was thinking about how he could convince Ziva to just give in to their "homework" and kiss him and Ziva was thinking about how many ways she could keep herself from doing just that.

"You sure you don't want to go dancing after dinner Zee? It could be a lot of fun." Tony finally asked having caved in to the temptation of breaking the silence.

"We will see Tony. We do have an early session tomorrow and I don't want to show up tired and out of sorts."

Tony's head whipped over to look at his partner almost fast enough to give him whiplash, his mouth hanging open slightly.

"What? I know I got that one right." Ziva said defensively. "Can you please watch the road before you get us both killed?"

Tony turned to look back out the windshield. "That's why I'm shocked Zee, you got that one right. You rarely get them right. I still think it would be fun to go out afterwards. You never know what we'll catch Abby and McGee doing." He said with a leer. "Besides you don't have to drink."

"We'll see how dinner goes Tony. Although if you really want to go, I could just take your car back to the camp and you could go with Abby and Tim."

Tony winced at the thought of Ziva driving his car. He trusted his partner with his life, he trusted his partner with the keys to his apartment (they had been exchanged solely in the case of an emergency) however he wasn't so sure he trusted her enough to let her drive his car without him in it. "Tell you what Zee, if you still want to go back after dinner, I'll take you back."

Ziva smirked. "You just do not want me driving your car."

"If you didn't drive like a crazy person, perhaps that wouldn't be an issue. As it is, if you want to leave I'll take you back. Besides, we're here." He said pulling into the parking lot of the restaurant.

They got out of the car and headed in. Abby and McGee had already arrived and had saved some seats in the back corner booth. Conveniently the only spaces left were a bench that Tony and Ziva would have to squeeze into.

Abby smiled when she saw Ziva slide in with Tony right next to her. Once again, he had to put his arm around her in order to fit them both into the booth comfortably and Ziva had relaxed into the space created next to his shoulder.

"Took you long enough to get here." Abby told them after they had sat down. "You should have let Ziva drive Tony." She smiled at the grimace that flashed across his face.

The conversation flowed easily as they waited for the waiter to show up to take their orders. Tony and Abby kept the others laughing with ridiculous stories from their college days, they naturally tried to best each other with the stories getting more and more ridiculous before Tim finally called them out for exaggerating.

Ziva was having a good time. She had forgotten how relaxing it could be to be out with a group of friends not having to worry that they may get called into work. She found Tony's arm around her comforting and she honestly wished that the circumstances were different and that somehow they could be together. She quickly gave her head a quick shake to send those thought elsewhere. She and Tony were co-workers and partners, and that's the way things were, no matter how much she may have wished otherwise.

Tony noticed Ziva give her head a quick shake but decided not to call her out on it. It may not be something she wanted everyone to know about however he would make sure to ask her about it later. It was easier to get her guard down when it was just the two of them.

The waiter finally came to take their orders and a silence descended upon the group once he had left. It was a comfortable silence that could only be achieved by a group of friends. Until Abby broke it.

"So, I want to hear about your counselling sessions." She asked Tony and Ziva watching the way they immediately tensed up with her question. "I think they could be fun and I'm kinda jealous that you guys get to go."

"You're more then welcome to have my spot." Tony muttered. "Crazy stalker shrink." He mumbled just loud enough for Ziva to hear causing a small smile to appear on her face.

"What's the big deal?" McGee asked. "Partners see shrinks all the time. They help you work on trust and stuff."

"Do you think we need help trusting each other McNosey?" Tony asked somewhat snidely.

"Hey, don't pick on Timmy." Abby protested. "I'm the one that asked the question. You don't get to be annoyed with him."

"It's fine Abby." McGee quickly inserted.

"No it isn't." she insisted. "Tony's being mean, and he shouldn't be." She said her arms crossing in front of her chest. "Say your sorry Tony."

Ziva had to smile at this one. It wasn't often someone besides herself and Gibbs ever stood up to Tony and it was refreshing to see Abby defending Tim. Especially since he was turning bright red at the attention. "Abby is right Tony. You should apologize to Tim."

Tony turned to shoot a glare at Ziva. Traitor. She was supposed to be on his side.

"Fine. I'm sorry Tim." He said somewhat sarcastically. He then turned to Ziva. "If you want to tell them about the counselling session, please feel free to go ahead." He felt somewhat vindicated at the look of panic that suddenly crossed her face.

"Yeah Ziva," Abby started in again "What are the sessions like?"

Ziva looked like a deer caught in the headlights. The last thing she wanted to talk about at a celebratory dinner was their counselling sessions. "They are waste of time." She finally answered not wanting to say anything that would let Abby and Tim know something was off.

"I highly doubt that Ziva." Abby countered. "If they were a waste of time they wouldn't make you go."

"Not true Abby." Tony swiftly intervened. "They made us do the trust game, you know the one where you fall backwards and your partner catches you."

Abby's entire face lit up. "I love that game. Except when you get dropped. Then it's not really so much fun."

"I do not wish to discuss therapy while we are celebrating." Ziva interrupted.

"It's not therapy Sweet Cheeks." Tony inserted. "It's partner counselling sessions. We are not in therapy."

"Whatever." She responded waiving her hand. "Perhaps we can discuss something more celebratory."

Thankfully the waiter chose that moment to show up with their food and conversation was stopped long enough for them to start eating.

It wasn't long before Abby noticed that Tony was eating off both his plate and Ziva's, and strangely enough Ziva was not stopping him. She nudged Tim's leg under the table and gestured to the two of them. McGee looked less then impressed.

"Tony, why are you eating both your dinner and Ziva's?" she finally asked trying to draw attention to what he was doing.

"Ziva never finishes hers." He replied with a shrug as if this were a fairly common occurrence.

Abby looked to Ziva. "It's true." She explained. "This way at least everything gets eaten. He may be a pig, but it can be useful."

"Hey, I resent that. I'm not a pig. It's not my fault you can barely eat anything. Although, you really need to try my chicken." He added. Abby watched as Tony speared a piece of chicken on his fork and transferred it to Ziva's mouth. She just barely kept her mouth from dropping open. He was feeding her in public and not one of them thought this was odd. She looked to McGee again who kept eating as if this was an every day occurrence. For all she knew it was an everyday occurrence. She shook her head and went back to her food. They really did belong together.

Dinner was consumed and dessert was ordered, Tony insisting that Ziva needed to order dessert so that he could have half of it. Tony's arm had been re-draped across Ziva's shoulders as they sat waiting for their meals to digest.

"So, are you coming dancing with us or not?" Abby suddenly demanded. "If this is a true celebratory dinner you have to come dance at least a couple of songs."

"Abby, we have an early morning tomorrow. You are lucky that you do not have to get up as early to visit a counsellor." Ziva told her trying to find a way out that wouldn't offend anyone.

"Nope. Not going to work." Abby told her. "It's only 9 o'clock. It's not late at all. Pretty please?" she asked not at all opposed to begging to get her way.

Ziva looked at Tony trying to gauge his reaction. She knew that he wanted to go out, and sure enough he gave her his interpretation of puppy dog eyes and she knew she was sunk. She would have to go out for at least a couple of songs. She sighed and turned to face Abby. "A couple of songs. No more."

"Yeah!" Abby exclaimed hugging Tim in her excitement. "This is going to be fun."

They finished their dessert and headed back out into the night towards the club that Abby had found. They entered the club together McGee throwing his arm around Abby's shoulders casually while they took stock of what was going on. Tony and Ziva exchanged amused smirks certain that their Goth lab tech enjoyed the slight protection that McGee was giving her.

They headed a little further into the club and it wasn't too long before Abby was dragging McGee into the crowd to go dance.

"I think we just got ditched Zee."

"I knew this was a bad idea." She responded as someone bumped into her knocking her off balance and into Tony. He quickly put his arms out wrapping one around her to steady her.

"How many drinks have you had?" He teased her knowing full well that she hadn't consumed any. "Maybe we should go find a table." He yelled into her ear as the further into the club they got the louder the music got. He kept an arm around her and started weaving through the rather large crowd trying to find some type of table area. They hadn't gotten very far before Tony felt an arm on his shoulder and turned around to see an ecstatic Abby beckoning them to come dance. He allowed himself to get pulled into the crowd pulling Ziva along with him.

She had absolutely no idea how she ever let herself get talked into these things. She felt herself being pulled into the crowd by Tony, who was in turn being pulled by Abby and she looked around to see if she could spot Tim. She finally spotted him and had to smile at the look on his face. He was surrounded by women and looked supremely uncomfortable. She decided to go save him and disconnected herself from Tony's arm. She tossed him a smile as he turned around to see what was going on and headed over to where Tim was.

She quickly grabbed his arm and dragged him away from the women into a slightly more clear area where they could talk without yelling too loud.

"Having fun?" She asked him and laughing at the face he pulled. "Why did you agree to come then?"

McGee simply shrugged. He could hardly tell her that he was there on a secret plan to make sure that she and Tony hooked up. "Uh, Abby wanted to come." Was the best explanation he could give. He felt himself start to turn red when Ziva threw him a knowing smirk. He wanted to protest what he knew she was thinking but didn't dare in the off chance that Abby found out. He shrugged his shoulders and grinned back at her. At least Ziva wouldn't tease him as much as Tony would.

They turned around to watch Tony and Abby dancing. They were both clearly having a great time trying to out do each other on the dance floor.

"You know," Ziva suddenly said close to his ear, "We could just leave them here." Tim turned to look at her as if seeing her for the first time. She was right. They didn't need to be here. If Abby and Tony wanted to dance the night away they could go home in Tony's car later. He turned to respond and watched as Ziva caught Tony's eye and they locked gazes for a minute. He rolled his eyes just as some guy shoved Ziva and she went sprawling into the crowd. He watched horrified as her face caught someone's elbow and she took a nasty blow before going down.

Tony watched as Ziva got knocked down and was over to his partner as fast as he could move. He wasted absolutely no time in reaching down, scooping her up and carrying her out of the club as fast as he could Abby and McGee following along behind him. He was out the door and to his car before he stopped to look down to see if she was conscious.

Abby had never seen Tony move so fast. He had been over to Ziva and scooped her up and out almost before she could blink. She had barely seen what happened before Tony had been over there rushing her out. She quickly followed him concerned about her friend.

"I'm fine." Ziva managed to tell everyone from where she was held in Tony's arms. She had barely managed to process what had happened before she found herself in Tony's arms being carried out of the club. She took stock of her injuries noting that she would probably have a bruise on her temple the next day but would otherwise be fine.

"Really." She told them noting the concerned looks on their faces. Tony gingerly placed her down sitting up on the hood of his car. She rolled her eyes. He really must be concerned if he placed her on his car.

"It's a bruise that is all." She insisted again at the looks they gave her.

"Um, maybe you should take a look." Abby told her pulling a mirror out of her purse.

Ziva looked into the mirror and let out a curse. She would most certainly have a bruise however it was going to be bigger then she had thought. Her eye was swelling up nicely and her temple was already changing colours.

"Let's get you home." Tony said gently pulling the mirror out of her hand and walking her around to the passenger seat. She let out an agitated sigh when he went to buckle her in however stifled the protest that wanted to make its way out. She hated that she was causing the look of worry on his face.

Tony was willing his heartbeat to go back down to normal. He swore he lost 10 years off his life when he saw her go down in that club. He wanted nothing more then to get her back to the camp safely and ice her face. She was going to be fine and that was all that mattered.

The ride back to the camp was silent, punctuated by Tony asking Ziva random questions to make sure that she didn't have a concussion.

"Who stared in the Tim Burton classic Edward Scissor Hands?"

"With or without a concussion I do not know the answer to that question." Ziva answered tiredly. "However I do not have a concussion."

They made it back to the camp with Abby and McGee right behind them. Tony went to carry her back up to the room however she waived him off insisting once again that she was fine. Honestly she didn't know what had come over him. He never showed this much concern when she was injured in the field. Nor should he. If they exhibited this much worry over injuries in the field they would never get anything accomplished. It was dangerous.

Tony watched as Ziva made her way up to her room. She was playing it off as if it were nothing but he knew it had to hurt, and he still wasn't sure she didn't have a concussion. He wasn't sure why he was feeling quite so protective. If he had scooped her up like that in the field Gibbs would have shot him, not to mention Ziva. He shook his head and followed after her.

The walk up to her room was silent. They had managed to loose Abby and McGee along the way. "I am fine Tony. You do not need to walk me inside." Ziva insisted at her door.

"I know." Tony said reaching up a hand and lightly brushing her temple. "You're the crazy ninja chick."

She smiled lightly. "I will see you in the morning." She told him before opening her door.

"Hey Zee?" he asked

She turned around and quickly before he could think about it he placed a feather light kiss on her bruised temple. "Sleep well." He said before turning around and heading into his room across the hall.

Ziva watched him disappear into his room and brought her hand up to lightly touch the spot he had just kissed. She felt butterflies in her stomach and allowed herself a small smile before entering her room for the night.


	15. Tony and Elsa

Tony made his way across the hall to Ziva's room way earlier than he would have liked. These counselling sessions were going to be the death of his he decided before lightly knocking on her door. Much to his surprise Abby came out and shut the door quickly behind her. He tossed her a puzzled look.

"She's still sleeping." Abby whispered.

Tony felt the concern wrap around him. Ziva _NEVER_ slept late. She was usually up hours before he was. "Is she ok?" he asked.

"I think so. I brought her up some ice last night so she could try and get the swelling down on her face. She iced it for a bit and then went to sleep. When the alarm went off I got up and she didn't."

"Did you try and wake her up?"

"No. She was resting so peacefully, I didn't want to wake her up."

"Abbs," Tony was getting a little exasperated with the Goth "She could have had a concussion; we need to try and wake her up."

"If she's sleeping peacefully I am not waking her up. She needs the sleep. Did you know she only ever sleeps for like 4 hours and tosses and turns the entire time?"

"Yeah, I know Abby, but right now that's not the point. She could have had a concussion; we need to wake her up."

Abby paused to consider for a moment. She had been up late with Ziva icing her face and she was pretty certain that the Israeli just needed to sleep. On the other hand; Tony was looking pretty upset and if he was aware of her sleeping patterns and thought they needed to wake her up anyway, maybe they should wake her up.

"All right." She conceded. "But you're doing it. I am not waking her up."

Tony sighed and headed into the room. He really hoped that Abby was right, and that Ziva really just needed some uninterrupted sleep. He knew she didn't sleep much, he supposed he wouldn't either if he had seen some of the things that she had, but he was concerned that she may really actually have a concussion and so was resolute that they needed to wake her up. If everything was fine he would insist she go back to sleep and he would go deal with Elsa himself. He gave a shudder at the thought. It wasn't pleasant but he would do it.

He walked over to where Ziva lay in bed snoring slightly. He smiled a little as he remembered the undercover case when she had snored like a drunken sailor. Over the years he had learned that somehow even in her sleep she was only doing that to annoy him. Only his crazy ninja chick could pull off that kind of move. He paused for a moment, when had she become his? It didn't matter. He looked down and studied her face for a moment. The bruise hadn't been as bad as it had looked like it would be. Her temple was black and blue and the edge of her eye was swollen, but she didn't have a black eye and it didn't look too horrible.

He leaned down until he was sitting on the bed next to her and shook her lightly. "Sweet Cheeks, time to get up."

Ziva came awake slowly which was unusual for her. She felt groggy and out of sorts and it took her a moment or two to process that Tony was staring down at her with concern waking her up.

"You ok Zee?" He asked not able to mask the concern in his voice. "I got a little concerned when you weren't up for our session."

Ziva groaned. The last thing she wanted to do was get out of bed and go down to see Elsa. She would rather face an angry Gibbs. She started to get up but was stopped by Tony holding her shoulder down. She tossed him a puzzled look.

"I was concerned you had a concussion. But since all you need is sleep stay in bed and I'll go deal with Elsa."

Ziva felt the relief shoot through her body along with the guilt. It really wasn't fair of her to stay in bed and let Tony go by himself, but she really was tired and his offer was so tempting.

"I had better come Tony. Gibbs will not like it if I miss a session." She finally decided starting to get up.

"No. You're staying in bed no arguments. Gibbs can clearly see for himself that you're hurt. If we have to make the session up some other time we can do that, but I want you to stay in bed."

Ziva met Tony's eyes and read the sincerity in them. He really wanted her to stay here and he would go meet Elsa by himself. She was suddenly hit with a waive of gratitude for her partner. Yes, sometimes he drove her crazy but it was always this sweet side that did her in.

"Thank you." She whispered and allowed him to tuck her in tightly kissing her lightly on the forehead before turning to Abby.

"Turn off the alarm and let her sleep. Actually, why don't you go take my bed and let her have some alone time." He commanded.

Abby raised her eyes but grabbed her stuff and headed out the door with him. His going all overprotective was only helping her plan so she followed him out into the hall shutting the light off behind her.

"You know that when she actually wakes up and realizes what time it is she's going to be mad at all of us right?"

"Don't worry about it Abbs" Tony said with a smile. "I'll take all the blame. You're off the hook."

Abby looked down at her watch. "You're 10 minutes late for Elsa." She told him with a smirk.

Tony groaned before taking off in a light job. This was so not going to be his idea of fun. He made it to Elsa's office in what he felt was record time noticing immediately that the door was open. He walked in and closed it behind him, Elsa watching from where she sat behind her desk.

"Good morning Agent DiNozzo. Where's Ziva?"

He threw her his most charming grin hoping to win her over and answered "We had a slight mishap last night and Ziva is still in bed. She's injured so I thought it best to let her sleep."

Elsa's eyes went wide "Is she ok?"

"She'll be fine she just needs to sleep it off." He assured her. "Did you want to re-schedule the session?" he asked hopefully.

Elsa narrowed her eyes at him. She could clearly tell that he would rather be anywhere else but perhaps this would actually work out to her benefit. "Actually Tony, this might be a better idea. Why don't we have a private session and Ziva can come down and see me later today for a session when she's feeling up to it." She told him.

"She'll never feel up to it." She heard him mutter under his breath and she held back a smile.

"Why don't you take a seat." She told him noticing that his charming smile had disappeared. Clearly he was aware of the effects of his smile and used it to his benefit.

Tony took a seat in a chair close to her desk and collapsed into it. He had really been hoping that they could re-schedule the session; he hadn't been counting on her suggesting a personal counselling session. Ziva so owed him he decided.

"How is Ziva injured?" Elsa asked him

"She took an elbow to the temple last night. I was a little worried she may have a concussion but I think her body just needs to sleep to heal. She doesn't sleep very well most nights." He offered thinking that Elsa could address the issue with Ziva later in the day. Maybe it would help her to talk about it with someone.

"How is it that you know your partners sleeping patterns Tony?" Elsa asked.

Tony groaned. If he had known she was going to turn this around on him he wouldn't have mentioned anything about her sleeping patterns. "Stake outs." He muttered quickly hoping she wouldn't press the issue.

Elsa lifted an eyebrow. "Do you often sleep on stake outs?" she asked.

"I meant undercover." He quickly countered.

"Are you often undercover?"

"A few times." He answered nonchalantly. She was quick he noticed. He really missed Ziva being there to deflect a few of the questions, and really wished he had of spent more time paying attention back in those old psychology classes.

Elsa watched him as he squirmed a little and held back a smile. He was so easy to read. She decided to change the line of questioning and set him at ease. "How did Ziva manage to take an elbow to the temple?"

"We went out for a celebratory dinner last night and Abby found a club to go to. We went out for some dancing and it was pretty packed." He shrugged. "Long story short, she's pretty short and someone managed to clip her in the temple with their elbow. She's ok, she's just got a really nice bruise on the side of her face and her eye is a little swollen."

Elsa studied Tony for a moment. "How did you feel when Ziva got hurt?" she asked him.

Tony was so not going to tell her that he had felt panicked and had picked her up and rushed her out as fast as he could. "I was concerned." He told her smoothly.

Elsa noticed that his words sounded confidant however his eyes gave him away. He really hated the idea of her being injured and she wouldn't be surprised if he somehow blamed himself. "It wasn't your fault." She told him.

"I never said it was." He responded. His heart had jumped a beat. How on earth did she know he thought it was his fault? She should have been over with him where he could watch her, not off with McGee who wouldn't even know what to look for.

They sat there staring at each other for a moment neither one backing down.

"Why do you think it's your fault?" Elsa asked breaking the silence.

Tony eyed her for a few moments before deciding to cave. It couldn't hurt to talk to someone who couldn't tell anyone what he said. "She should have been with me." He responded honestly.

Elsa was surprised that he had answered. He was pretty smooth and she had expected another brush off. He had the art of being evasive down to an art and she would place money on the fact that he could probably lie to fool most people.

"She wasn't with you?" she asked seeing if she could get him to open up a bit more.

He sighed. "She was talking to McGee a little bit away. We locked eyes for a moment and some guy elbowed her in the face." He said a little bit bitterly. "She went down pretty fast."

"So it's your fault for distracting her?"

"No, she should have been with me anyway. Not off talking to McGee."

"If she was talking to McGee and didn't notice, how is this not McGee's fault?" She asked wanting to understand his logic.

"She's not his partner."

"I see. If, is it Abby?" at his nod she continued "If Abby had been hurt would it have been McGee's fault?"

"No."

"It is possible that this was just an accident and isn't anybody's fault?"

"Accidents shouldn't happen when people are paying attention." He told her.

Elsa mentally rolled her eyes. This guy had a serious protective streak a mile wide.

"I somehow doubt that Ziva will see this as your fault." She told him and watched him wince.

"She never does." He responded quietly enough so that she knew she wasn't supposed to have heard that comment.

"What else does Ziva not see as your fault?" she asked curiously.

"I don't know what your talking about." He clammed up.

Elsa noticed that he had gone somewhat stiff and while his voice was still friendly there was a note of finality in it that signalled whatever it was he was hiding he was not going to talk about it. She decided to change the subject.

"Have you done your homework?" she asked him and had the pleasure of watching shock jump across his face before he schooled it back into a look of feigned indifference.

Tony decided that he was just not going to answer that question. If he said yes, she would try and analyse him, if he said no she would try and analyse him. There was just no good answer to the question so he remained silent.

Elsa waited a few moments before realizing that Tony was just not going to answer the question. That was fine. She could tell a lot by silence as we well.

"You're not answering which tells me you either did your homework and it meant a lot more then you thought it would and you don't want to talk about it, or you didn't do your homework because it means more then you want it to and are hesitant to try."

Tony raised an eyebrow. "That's an interesting theory. Too bad you don't know which it is." He said with a smirk.

"Ziva will be in here later." She reminded him.

"Right." He said sarcastically. "Because if you can't get me to talk then clearly you're going to break Ziva; The Mossad agent trained to pass lie detectors. I can see how you would think that she'll tell you what you want to know."

"I'll just pick an option and let her think you told me." Elsa responded with a grin.

Tony snorted. "I'll see her first." He reminded her.

"So you're going to tell her that you wouldn't admit if you kissed her and that she should do the same?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "You're not the only one that can play dirty."

"Is this a game to you Tony?"

Elsa watched as Tony's eyes sharpened and looked at her. "Should it be?" he asked her.

"Feelings between partners should never be a game Tony; especially when they're as involved as yours are."

Tony decided to feign nonchalance. "Who says I have feelings?" he asked forcing his body to relax and his posture to loosen.

Elsa noticed the change and caught on to what he was doing. He was good she conceded to herself, she was still better.

"I do." She replied. "It's blatantly obvious to anyone who cares to look deep enough." She shrugged her shoulders. "I'm simply trying to help you work through them to make your partnership better."

"So if I kiss Ziva, our partnership will be better?" He asked still feigning nonchalance.

"At least on one level." She agreed nodding.

He rolled his eyes. "I'll think about it." He said. "Are we done for today?"

Elsa nodded and watched as he got up and left. "I bet your already thinking about it aren't you Tony." She asked herself with a smile.

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**A/N: Since I've had a couple of comments (ok well one really) I'll clarify. I realize that in real life a counsellar could loose their job and license for what Elsa is up to. That being said...well this is fiction.**

**Again thanks for all your amazing reviews! I appreciate the thoughts behind them. **

** -Kris**


	16. Explanation

McGee could feel someone looking at him and blearily opened his eyes to find Abby staring down at him. On some level he knew he should be surprised but somehow he just wasn't.

"What time is it?" He asked his voice still horse from sleeping.

"It's early. Tony went down to see Elsa and made Ziva stay in bed. Then he decided that she would sleep better if she was alone in the room and so he made me come in here. He said I could sleep in his bed."

McGee turned his head to the side and noticed that Tony's bed was clearly made. Since he knew Tony never made his bed unless he expected the girls to come over he figured Abby had probably made the bed. He turned to look at Abby.

"Can I share your bed? I'd rather share your bed then get into Tony's. You never know what he's done in there." She said with a mock shudder. Tim simply lifted the corner of his blanket and slid over in the bed making room for Abby. He was tired and it really wasn't worth all the questions.

"Thanks Timmy. I owe you one." She said before snuggling down into the comforter and nodding off. It wasn't long before he followed after her.

Tony opened the door to his room and stopped dead in his tracks his mouth hanging open. Ziva had been totally on the mark about those two he decided after closing his mouth and walking a little further into the room. He decided that he would have some fun with them and pulled out his camera phone. He had managed to get some pretty good shots off before there was a knock at their door. Thinking that maybe it was Ziva wondering where everybody went he quickly went to open the door.

"You were totally right!" he started before noticing that it wasn't Ziva but Gibbs that stood on the other side. He quickly came out shutting the door behind him loudly hoping to wake the other agents so that Gibbs wouldn't see them in bed together.

"I'm always right DiNozzo, although perhaps you can elaborate on what I'm right about." Gibbs watched with a small smirk as Tony subtly gulped. He knew his agent had been expecting someone else however he enjoyed watching him come up with excuses. He would never admit it out loud but he often times found DiNozzo amusing.

"Uh, well you're right about how team building camp really does help the team become closer." He quickly answered with a grin.

"I don't remember having said that DiNozzo."

"Really? Cause I'm sure you did and you were totally right."

Gibbs sighed. "What are you hiding DiNozzo?"

"What makes you think I'm hiding anything boss?" He asked his charming grin firmly in place.

"Are you hiding Ziva in there?" Gibbs asked slightly irritated. He watched Tony wince at the mention of his partner's name.

"Uh, no Boss, I'm not hiding Ziva in my room."

"What's going on then?"

"Well see, we had a slight accident last night at club."

Gibbs groaned. Only his team would have an accident at a club during a team building camp. "What kind of accident?" It was then that Abby decided to come out of the guy's room. Gibbs eyebrows shot up to his hairline. He turned to Tony and hit him in the back of the head. "You were hiding Abby? Tell me what's going on. Now!"

"I wasn't hiding Abby." Tony protested rubbing the back of his head. "I told her to sleep in my bed while I went to the counselling session with Elsa."

"Where's Ziva?" Gibbs growled.

"In bed." Abby told him. "She got hit last night so we figured it would be better to let her sleep for a bit. Tony told me to take his bed so that she could get some rest!"

"Ziva got hit?" Gibbs asked in disbelief. "Is she ok?"

"She's fine boss." Tony quickly assured him. "She's kinda short and someone clipped her with their elbow at the club. She has a bruise on her temple and her eye is a little swollen but otherwise she's fine. She just needed to sleep it off."

"You have got to be kidding me." Gibbs muttered before heading to the girl's room and heading in, Tony and Abby right behind him.

Ziva was lying on her back in bed, exactly as she had been when Tony had left her. Her head was tilted slightly to the side so that the injured side of her face was tilted up. Gibbs sat down on the bed next to her and much like Tony had done earlier gave her a light shake to get up.

Ziva came awake more quickly this time and was a little surprised to wake and see Gibbs staring down at her. "I am late." She quickly said eyes going wide and sitting up quickly. She vaguely noticed Tony and Abby standing behind Gibbs however she found Gibbs holding her down when she tried to get out of bed.

"I just came to see how you are." He told her gently. "You're not late. How's your face?"

Ziva winced. "I am fine Gibbs. There is no need for concern. I will be up and ready for breakfast in a few minutes."

"Don't worry about it. Take all the time you need. We'll be over in the guy's room." Gibbs told her before standing up. He headed to the door beckoning Tony to follow him. "We'll see you two when you're ready. I was coming to tell you that we actually have a free morning so there's no rush."

Tony followed Gibbs out of the room and back into his own. He found himself relieved that Abby had made his bed as McGee was still sound asleep in his own. Gibbs didn't waste any time heading over to McGee and pulling the covers off of him causing him to wake up somewhat abruptly.

"You're late." Gibbs told him somewhat harshly.

"Late for what?" McGee asked somewhat confused.

"Just late." Gibbs responded while Tony looked on with a smug smile.

"Stop grinning DiNozzo." Gibbs abruptly commanded. "McGee get dressed. Then we're all going to go over why Ziva's face is black and blue."

McGee quickly got dressed and made his bed. Gibbs sat down on Tony's bed while McGee and Tony sat on McGee's bed facing their boss. They both felt a little bit like they were in the principal's office and waited for the blistering lecture they were both sure was coming.

"Whose idea was it to go to a club?" Gibbs finally asked enjoying the apprehensiveness of his agents.

"Abby's." Came the answer simultaneously from both men.

Gibbs sighed. He knew first hand how hard it was to tell Abby no about anything. "And no one thought it might be a good idea to just come back here? Especially with your track records?" he drilled them.

Both agents hung their heads and said nothing. In retrospect Gibbs was right. They should have just told Abby no and come back to the camp.

Gibbs got up and slapped the back of both of their heads. "Let this be a lesson to you. Next time just say no to Abby."

"Easier said then done." Tony muttered under his breath and had Gibbs holding back a smile.

"We have a free morning today." Gibbs told them for the benefit of McGee. "Luckily for you I brought a bunch of paper work that needs to be done. You can play catch up in the library to keep you out of trouble for the morning."

Tony's mouth dropped open. "You brought paper work to a team building camp?" He spurted.

"Well we all know how far behind you are DiNozzo. It doesn't hurt to come prepared." He answered with a smug smile. He knew how much his senior agent hated paper work. "As an added bonus, I have it on good authority that the FBI team will also be in the library catching up on paper work this morning."

"You and Fornell set this up didn't you." Tony groaned. "It's like you knew in advance we would need to be punished."

McGee just groaned and flopped backwards onto the bed. "I'd rather be back in that woman's prison." He muttered sounding utterly despondent.

Gibbs just smiled down on his two agents. It was then that Abby and Ziva decided to enter the room. Ziva had covered much of her bruise with makeup and had left her hair down however you could still see the slight swelling of her eye.

She took one look at Gibbs smiling face and then noticed McGee lying on his back on the bed and Tony with his head in his hands. She raised one eyebrow at Gibbs.

"He brought paperwork for us to do this morning." Tony answered noticing the look she gave Gibbs. "And he's locking us in the library with the FBI to do it."

"You're locking us in?" She inquired of Gibbs.

"Only if you try and get out." Gibbs answered.

"Actually Zee" Tony started "I think I have an out for you. Elsa wants to have a private session with you sometime today since you missed this morning's session."

Ziva's face developed a panic look. "A private session? I would rather do paperwork with the FBI." She told him.

"Sorry." Tony told her. "I tried to get you out of it but Elsa wouldn't let it go. If it makes you feel any better I've already had mine."

"How does that make me feel better Tony? You should have just let me come with you this morning." She said letting her frustration out on her partner.

"Sorry that I let you sleep being injured and all." He responded sarcastically. "Next time I'll just force you to get out of bed and head down to the counsellor's office even though you clearly need your sleep."

"I don't need you to cuddle me. I am perfectly capable of getting up and going to a therapy session with a bruise on my face. I do not need special treatment." She said getting really mad now.

"You mean coddle. Cuddling you would be like cuddling with a porcupine. And sooorry for trying to be considerate." He said glaring at her.

It was then that Gibbs decided to intervene knowing that they could go on for hours if he didn't put a stop to it. "Enough." He commanded. "Ziva you needed to sleep, don't blame DiNozzo. I'm sure it won't be that bad."

"Have you met Elsa?" She asked Gibbs.

"No."

"Than you can't presume to tell me how bad it will be." She said.

"I'll go instead." Abby offered.

"You can't." Gibbs told her. "Ziva has to do this one on her own. Unless she's scared of the therapist." He taunted her knowing exactly which buttons to press.

"You'd be scared too if you had to go see her." DiNozzo jumped in defending his partner. "Seriously, she just asks creepy questions and then stares at you waiting to answer. Not to mention she'll stalk you all over the place." He shuddered.

"It will be fine." Ziva told the room at large. "I will go see her after breakfast." This was the queue that the team needed to start to leave the room.

"Hold up." Gibbs told them. "I'm only going to say this once so lets all be clear. Unless I go with you there will be no one leaving this camp for any reason. No one else will be hurt while we are here. Is this clear?"

A chorus of "Yes Boss" were heard from the agents before heading down to breakfast.

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**A/N: OK thanks again for all the reviews...you guys are great! Keep them coming, they make me more inspired to keep writting. That being said, I'm sorry it's taking me so long to update. I'm been pretty busy but I'm hoping to get more chapters up soon! I meant what I said, keep reviewing, they make me want to write more!**

** -Kris**


	17. FBI fun

Gibbs looked around the table and held in a smile. His team was eating much slower then they normally would. Not one of them seemed to be in any kind of rush to get on with their morning. McGee was daintily cutting his food and Tony was actually chewing his. Even Abby and Ziva seemed to be taking as long as humanly possible to eat the food in front of them. He didn't really blame them; if he was completely honest the thought of being stuck in the room with the FBI wasn't really all that appealing. Thankfully he had no plans of doing so.

He took a moment to study Ziva's face and wondered what had distracted her enough to allow her to get hit. He looked at DiNozzo and had his answer. There was nothing else that would allow Ziva to be distracted enough to take a hit. He thought again about warning them about rule 12. It didn't really seem worth it in the end. Knowing the two of them, rule 12 would just make everything that much more exciting. Perhaps he should just tell them he approved. That would take the element of danger out of it. He rolled his eyes; nothing he said or did was going to change anything about them.

"I don't have to do paperwork. " Abby finally said to the table at large her eyes lighting up. "I'm not technically an agent, I work in the lab and thus" she made a sweeping gesture with her arm "do not have to do paperwork."

McGee and DiNozzo tossed her envious looks while Ziva looked merely amused. Gibbs simply raised an eyebrow.

"Unless you think there's paperwork I could help with Gibbs." She said seeming to shrink a little bit. "I'm always happy to help." She muttered.

"I think the library is a good place for you to stay out of trouble." Gibbs responded. "I hear last night's "incident" was your idea."

"Hey!" she said indignantly to McGee and DiNozzo. "You sold me out. No fair. See if I help either or you next time you want to play a prank." She huffed.

"Perhaps Abby could come to see Elsa with me this morning." Ziva offered trying to sound as innocent as possible.

Abby's eyes lit up again while Tony turned to look at his partner with his mouth hanging open. Why hadn't he thought of that?

"I don't think so." Gibbs interjected, openly smirking when Ziva's face fell. "I want her in the library with DiNozzo and McGee so they can keep an eye on her."

"With all due respect Gibbs, I'd be better protected with Ziva." Abby answered dryly over the protests of the guys.

"I didn't say I needed you protected Abbs. I said I wanted them to keep an eye on you. No one is nosier then those two."

"Hey!" They both protested as Abby and Ziva smiled.

"Ziva's just as bad. She just hides it better." Tony muttered under his breath and then let out an oomph as Ziva elbowed him in the gut.

"You're done." Gibbs finally told them looking around at their breakfast trays. "It's time to get going."

"Actually Boss, I was just about to go get some seconds." Tony quickly said grabbing his tray and getting up.

"Not today DiNozzo. Grab your stuff and let's get going." He told them much amused when the let out groans.

"I'll walk up with you." Ziva told them trying to stall going to see Elsa for as long as possible.

"I don't think so David. Go see your shrink." Gibbs told her as they started to head out of the cafeteria. "We will not be getting bad marks in any area." He told her with a stern look before heading towards the elevator.

Tony tossed her a sympathetic look before heading off with Gibbs. He didn't blame her for not wanting to go. Being forced to talk about "feelings" was not something that either of them particularly liked to do and he suspected it was even tougher on Ziva then it was on him. He got on the elevator and then winced at the thought of spending the morning with the FBI. This was really going to suck.

Gibbs led his team up to the library and walked them in. He wasn't sure what had prompted him to bring along their outdated paperwork but he was glad that he had. He didn't fancy a morning of wasted time watching movies when they could be doing something productive. He waited for them to take seats before dropping the stack of folders he had brought along. Thankfully the library was armed with computers they could use to type up their reports and e-mail them back to work. He wasn't really sure how that worked, but he knew that they knew.

Tim stifled a groan. He was thankful at least that the FBI hadn't gotten there yet. He was also glad Ziva was downstairs and not up here with them. He really didn't want to answer any more questions about how their Mossad agent ended up with a black and blue temple and a swollen eye. Honestly it was almost embarrassing. Here they were; trained federal agents, one an assassin and none of them prevented her from taking a hit. He hadn't even caught her when she went down. Tony's reflexes had been better than his. He was actually surprised that Tony hadn't brought that up. He looked at the older agent. On second thought he wasn't surprised. Tony probably somehow thought it was his fault. He changed his attention to the task at hand and let out an audible groan. These computers had to be at least 5 years old.

Tony turned to look at the probie when he let out a groan and chuckled at the look on his face. Clearly their dear McGee was having some issues with the computers. He didn't know why, they looked perfectly fine to him, but then again what did he know? At least the FBI wasn't there yet.

Abby was already bored. Since it had already been established that she didn't actually have to do paperwork she was patrolling the shelves of the library looking for something at least half way decent to read. She briefly gave a thought to hacking into the computers and messing with the FBI agents when they got there but she decided to hold off on that until a little later in the morning. She grabbed a Harlequin romance novel and simply shrugged her shoulders at Gibbs raised eyebrow. At least the smut would be somewhat entertaining. She looked up as the door to the library opened and the FBI came in.

"Gibbs." Fornell nodded leading his team into the room. He watched while they took seats away from the NCIS agents and allowed a brief smile to be seen by Gibbs. There was no love lost between their teams and they preferred to keep it that way. Things always seemed to get messy when agencies became friends.

"Here's the deal." Gibbs started once they had all taken there seats. "You are here to do paperwork. You are to all remain in this room until we come back for you and you are to play nice." At Tony's scoff Gibbs tossed him a glare. "We expect paperwork to be done when we get back, and we don't want to be brought up here by someone's complaints."

"Is this understood?" Fornell finished off glaring at the room in general. "You are all to stay out of trouble."

"Where are you going sir?" Agent Moore the FBI profiler asked.

Tony rolled his eyes. Clearly the FBI team was not a team that worked together all that often or he would have been smart enough to keep his mouth closed and not ask any questions.

"That's irrelevant Agent." Fornell answered. "Are the rules understood?" he all but growled at his team.

"Yes sir." Came the answers.

"Where's your girlfriend DiNutso?" Agent Sacks asked as soon as Gibbs and Fornell had left the room.

It did not escape any of the NCIS agent's attention that agent Smith perked up at the mention of Ziva.

"If you mean my partner Slacks, it's really none of your business." Tony answered tightly not wanting to let them know that they were attending partner counselling sessions.

"Ah," agent Sacks continued, "poor DiNozzo's girlfriend has gone missing. Did you kill her too?" he asked sarcastically trying to get a reaction out of the NCIS team.

"You're lucky she's not here to hear you talking about her." McGee calmly answered. "She's not known for her restraint on scumballs."

"Right, I heard about that. Didn't she kill a suspect in your building?" Agent Sacks asked with a grin on his face. "Seems she and DiNutso are made for each other."

"Isn't dating your partner against company policies?" Agent Smith decided to ask with a leer on his face. "Seems like if someone ratted you out for that you could both be out of a job."

"Really Agent Smith," Abby intervened "Surely you should know better then to listen to the rumours of Agent Sacks. He's just jealous because he applied for a job with NCIS and was turned down, so he had to settle for the FBI." She tossed a smug look at Agent Sacks. She had him and she knew she did. His look of outrage simply confirmed that fact.

"Agent Scuito, I don't know what you're talking about." Agent Sacks protested his face beet red.

"Perhaps we should just return to our paperwork." McGee intervened chuckling. He didn't know where Abby had found that information but it had done the trick. The FBI went back to their paperwork in silence. It didn't last for long however.

"My files just erased." Agent Moore suddenly complained.

"You might want to avoid the delete key." Tony answered sarcastically completely oblivious to the look of delight that was currently on Abby's face.

Agent Smith quickly rushed over to his co-workers desk to see what he had done wrong. "You've been hacked." Came his somewhat irritated response. The 4 FBI agents turned to look at Tony.

"Oh come on!" he complained. "I know I'm good, but I'm not that good." He said rolling his eyes. "I don't do the computer geek thing." With that they all turned to look at McGee who was typing away.

"It wasn't me." He answered without looking up from his computer screen.

"Check him." Agent Sacks commanded agent Smith who promptly headed over for Tim's computer.

McGee saved his current file, sighed and rolled his eyes before allowing Agent Smith to check his computer.

"It wasn't him." Agent Smith told Agent Sacks leaving them to all look at Abby who was sitting at a station reading a book seemingly oblivious to the entire conversation.

"She's the lab rat." Agent Sacks told his team dismissing Abby as a potential threat. "Check DiNozzo."

Tony simply chuckled dryly before allowing Agent Smith to check his computer. "It wasn't him either." Was the irritated conclusion once he was done checking the computer. "You weren't hacked from inside this room."

"That's impossible." Agent Sacks vocally complained. "It had to have been done from inside this room. No one else would even care."

"Well it wasn't any of them." Agent Smith confirmed before sitting back down at his own desk.

"Are you seriously telling me I'm going to have to start over?" Agent Moore asked seemingly very put out by the idea.

"That sucks." Tony put in less then sympathetic to his plight. He was fairly certain that Abby was the culprit and he was ecstatic that the FBI was ruling her out. She was almost as good as McGee when it came to computers. Agent Moore gave another huff and went back to typing whatever it was that he was doing. Tony and McGee exchanged brief smiles before going back to their own paperwork. Perhaps their morning wouldn't be as dull as they thought it would afterall.


	18. Ziva and Elsa

Ziva was dragging her heals. She would so much rather be upstairs working on paperwork with the FBI then heading towards Elsa's office by herself. It seemed like a punishment that was beyond fair if you asked her. She slowed down even more as she came up to Elsa's floor having naturally taken the stairs as opposed to the elevator. She stopped to admire a painting before huffing and just heading towards the door and knocking.

Elsa opened her door and bit back a smile. Ziva stood outside her door looking absolutely disgusted with the idea of even being there. She took a moment to study the bruising around her eye. It wasn't as bad as she thought it would be, however she was sure that any type of mark on her face probably would have driven Tony nuts.

"Come on in." she offered throwing the door open wide. She didn't even try to hold back the smile when Ziva huffed and walked into her office immediately heading for the same chair that Tony had sat in earlier in the day.

Elsa calmly walked behind her desk and sat down. She didn't say anything she simply let the silence build. She had found over the years that sometimes silence was more telling then talking.

Ziva rolled her eyes. She imagined that the silence trick would work wonders on Tony however it didn't bother her at all. If Elsa wanted to waste time sitting in silence that was fine with Ziva. She'd prefer the silence to all those questions.

Elsa noticed that Ziva had no issues at all sitting in silence. She didn't fidget or look nervous; in fact she almost seemed comfortable not talking. She wasn't going to learn anything about Ziva from the silence.

"Your bruise doesn't look as bad as I thought it would." She finally offered hoping to get some conversation started.

Ziva rolled her eyes. "I find that Tony often will exaggerate things." She told Elsa clearly aware of where she had gotten her information.

"Why do you suppose that is?" Elsa asked curious to what her answer would be.

"You want me to explain Tony?" Ziva said dryly. "I thought it was your job to understand us."

"You know him better. I have a sneaking suspicion you probably know about as much as I do in regards to psychology. If you haven't studied it then you've certainly picked up very good people reading skills in your job."

"You stay alive longer if you understand what people will do." Ziva offered not at all denying that she had a basic knowledge in psychology.

"So then, why do you think Tony exaggerates so much?" Elsa asked again, really wanting to know what Ziva's answer would be.

"Because that is who Tony is." Ziva answered with a small smile.

Elsa bit back a sigh. This was not going to be easy. Ziva would be much less willing to open up then Tony would. "Have you done your homework?" she finally asked just biting the bullet and getting right to the point.

Ziva raised her eyebrows and said nothing. There was no way she was going to answer that question. She thought back to the almost kiss while they were playing laser tag and wondered if that would even count. Somehow she doubted it, but Elsa really didn't need to know about that anyway.

"You've been talking to Tony haven't you?" Elsa asked when she received no answer.

"About this?" Ziva asked gesturing to the office with her arm. "There was not any time for me to ask him. We have been surrounded by the team the entire morning."

"Huh. Ok well then here's my theory. You won't tell me if you've done your homework because you either have and it meant more than you thought it would so you don't want to discuss it, or it means more than you want it to and you haven't done it yet. I'm personally betting on the latter."

Ziva smirked. "It must drive you crazy that you don't know."

"Tony pretty much said the same thing." She offered with a slight smile.

Ziva was internally surprised that Elsa had brought this up with Tony and that he hadn't said anything. She would have bet anything that he would have just made something up to get her off their back. She was also surprised that he could just not say something. He wasn't known for his control at remaining silent. She didn't want Elsa to know she had surprised her though so she merely continued to smirk.

Elsa knew that Ziva wasn't going to give her anything more on this particular subject. Tony had been right earlier in the morning when he had implied that if she couldn't get it out of him then she really wouldn't be getting anything out of Ziva. It really was most frustrating.

"Tony blames himself for your eye." She finally said knowing that the only way to get Ziva to open up would be to discuss someone else. She figured Tony would be a safe bet and perhaps this would force them to talk about it.

Ziva's eyebrows went up, however that was the only indication she gave that this was news to her. "Tony always blames himself, even when it isn't his fault." She offered hoping to keep Elsa on the topic of Tony and away from her.

"He thinks if you had of been with him at the time this wouldn't have happened."

Ziva snorted. "He is delusional if he thinks I'm going to stay with him 24 hours a day. It was my fault for not paying attention."

"It wasn't just an accident?" Elsa asked.

"Accidents shouldn't happen when people are paying attention."

Elsa very neatly kept her mouth from dropping open. She was pretty sure that her response was word for word the one Tony had given her earlier in the morning. Honestly these two were so in sync it was almost disturbing. The creepiest part was that they didn't even know it.

"So you're saying that your injury is your fault."

"Yes."

"It's my understanding that your agent McGee was with you when you got hit. Is it partly his fault?"

"It is no more McGee's fault then Tony's. And before you can ask, it wasn't Abby's fault either. I wasn't paying attention, I was distracted and as a result I got hit. I am fine and it's no big deal." Ziva answered starting to sound slightly irritated.

"I see." Elsa said. She had noticed that Ziva was very protective of her co-workers, the moment you insinuated that it might have been there fault you actually got a glimpse of something."

"Why were you distracted?"

Elsa watched in amazement as Ziva suddenly closed off. It was if her question had flipped a light switch. Her shoulders tensed, her posture went rigid and she stopped talking.

"That is why Tony blames himself." Elsa said quietly.

"It is not his fault." Ziva stubbornly insisted.

"Perhaps you should tell him that."

Ziva loosened back up slightly and shrugged. "It would not make any difference. He will blame himself regardless. Nothing I say will change the way he feels."

"He mentioned that you never blame him. Would you care to elaborate on which other events you don't blame him for?"

Ziva's eyes went dark. "He blames himself for many things that are not his fault." Was all she would say.

Elsa decided to change the subject. Clearly whatever had happened in the past was not a subject either of them was willing to discuss.

"Tony mentioned you don't sleep well at night. Do you suffer from bad dreams?"

Ziva let out an explicative that Elsa could only assume was Hebrew. "Tony will say anything to keep the attention away from him." She finally answered sounding somewhat ticked off.

"You didn't answer my question." Was Elsa's calm reply.

"Nor will I." Ziva responded in the same tone.

While Elsa had conceded that Tony had been good at the game of evasiveness, Ziva was much, much better. She wasn't going to learn anything that Ziva didn't want her to know. Which was probably just about everything Elsa really wanted to know. She ground her teeth in frustration while keeping a serene expression on her face. Clearly one on one sessions were not going to work with Ziva. She needed Tony there to get anything out of her.

"In our first session Tony mentioned that you couldn't be romantically involved because your boss had a rule about it. Why don't you tell me about that."

"Never date a co-worker." Ziva told her keeping a fake smile on her face. She didn't like where this conversation was going.

"Is that the reason you and Tony have never gone out?" Elsa asked her.

Ziva shrugged. "Perhaps we haven't gone out because we're not romantically attracted to each other." She offered.

Elsa snorted. "That's the biggest load of crap I've ever heard. You can cut the sexual tension between the two of you with a knife, and the fact that you're too scared to kiss says that you're emotionally involved as well. Do you know what I think?" She asked leaning forward in her chair as if she were about to share a giant secret.

Ziva gestured for her to go ahead.

"I think that you're both scared of commitment, so you dance around the feelings you clearly have for each other so that you won't have to commit. One kiss and you'd both be gone, sucked into the invariable pool of commitment that would surely follow because your feelings would be too deeply involved. You could both be hurt, so you're too afraid to even try."

Ziva's heart beat loudly in her chest. She could admit to herself that she was too scared to kiss Tony because he really did have the potential to destroy her but to hear someone else say it was just insulting.

"We are all entitled to our own opinions." She said to Elsa not willing to let the counsellor see just how disturbed she was by what she had said. "You are free to think what you want about Tony and I. It does not mean you are right."

Elsa smirked back at the mossad agent. She had her and she knew she did. "I think we both know I'm right Ziva. You know, one little kiss could really help your partnership."

"Or destroy it." Ziva answered back.

"Tony at least said he would think about it." Elsa interjected trying to get Ziva to admit the same.

A rather large smirk crossed Ziva's face. "Oh, that would be nothing new for him." She admitted. "Tony thinks about kissing just about every woman he's ever met."

"Oh I don't know about that." Elsa offered lightly. "I think he's only got one woman on his mind these days." She said locking gazes with Ziva.

Ziva dropped her gaze first. "Are we done for today?" She finally asked looking back up at Elsa.

"We're done when you can admit you're too scared to kiss Tony." Elsa said a grin firmly in place.

"I am not afraid to kiss Tony." Ziva spluttered totally taken aback but the statement.

"Then why haven't you kissed him?"

"Who says I haven't?" Ziva answered back a challenge clearly issued in her tone.

"Oh we both know you haven't kissed him yet. But I have every confidence that you will." Elsa said amusement clearly evident in her tone.

"You are very much obsessed with this. You are like a dog with its collar."

Elsa just looked at Ziva completely confused by the statement that had just come out of her mouth. "A dog with its collar?" she questioned.

"Yes. Isn't that one of your American expressions? A dog with its collar?"

Comprehension suddenly dawned and Elsa let out a chuckle. "A dog with its bone is the expression I believe you're looking for."

Ziva shrugged. "It's the same to me. Can I go now?"

Elsa chuckled again. "I suppose that we're done for today. I want both you and Tony in here tomorrow morning though. And I want you to stop being afraid and just kiss him already."

"I am not afraid." Ziva muttered and she got up and walked out of the room, Elsa laughing behind her the entire way.

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**A/N: I'm sorry it's taken me so long to update- I totally know how frustrating it is to have to wait for updates on stories :) I've been totally busy and I had a bit of writters block! :) Hopefully I'll be able to update more then a chapter every couple of weeks!**

**500+ reviews- you guys totally rock! I just wanted to thank you all for sticking with the story. You're all great! I love the reviews keep them coming. Good and bad!**

** -Kris**


	19. Paperwork

Ziva was mad and she needed to burn off some of her anger before she went to work on the paperwork with the rest of the team. She wasn't scared to kiss Tony. That had nothing to do with the reason they hadn't kissed. She simply did not want to possibly complicate the partnership they already had. All right fine, she was scared. She was already far too emotionally involved with Tony to dare risk everything with a kiss. They were partners. He saw her as a partner, and potentially a good friend but nothing more. She was not naïve enough to believe that she could kiss Tony and walk away from it unharmed. He would view the kiss as just that, a kiss. She snorted, or as a challenge to get into her pants.

She decided to head outside for a brief walk and pressed the down button on the elevator. Much to her dismay it opened to reveal Gibbs and Fornell.

"Going somewhere David?" Gibbs asked an eyebrow raised.

"I need to clear my head before submitting myself to his team." She said with a nod towards Fornell. "I find myself with the strange urge to inflict pain."

Fornell winced. "Let her take her walk Gibbs. I need my team in one piece."

"You wanna talk about it?" Gibbs asked her more out of his duty as team leader then any actual belief she would actually talk about it.

"I am sick of talking." Was all she said. They rode down in silence for a few seconds before Ziva hit the stop button and whirled to face Gibbs and Fornell.

"Why is it that these shriks-"

"Shrinks" Gibbs corrected automatically

"Shrinks think that they can make people talk about things and that the issues will magically go away? Talking about things does not make things better. In fact it makes things worse. It just drags out all the unwanted complications that you tried so hard to forget about in the first place come to surface. Talking about things does not make things different. It just makes them there."

Fornell shot a nervous look at Gibbs. He wasn't used to having to deal with crazy Israeli melt downs and he wasn't sure what the best course of action would be to not get them killed. Thankfully Gibbs was willing to take the lead on this one.

"Talking brings things out in the open. It helps to find solutions to things."

"What if things don't need a solution? What if they need to just be forgotten about?"

"Look Ziva, I'm not going to lie and pretend that I like therapy or that I even believe in talking about things, but you clearly need to work out whatever's gotten you so worked up."

"I need to hit something." She muttered causing Gibbs to smile and Fornell to wince.

"Look there's a gym downstairs. Go work off some of your frustration and then go join the rest of the team with the paperwork."

"Where are you going?" she eyed them suspiciously.

"Out." Was all Gibbs said before re-stating the elevator.

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Tony was bored. There was only so much paperwork you could take in one morning. Ziva wasn't even there to distract him. He glanced down at his watch and wondered where she was. She'd been gone for an hour and a half and the sessions were only 45min. She probably escaped he thought bitterly before Agent Moore let out another groan. This was the 3rd groan since they'd been in here and he bet that Abby had hacked their system again. He really wasn't sure how they were dumb enough to have not caught on that A) it was Abby and B) she was doing it from inside the room. He just shook his head and carried on with his paper work.

"That's it! I've had enough!" Agent Sacks finally yelled out. "Which one of you is the hacker?"

"I thought it was previously established that it wasn't one of us?" Tony answered somewhat sarcastically. "And if it was do you really think we would just stand up and say Hey guys, it was me?"

"Maybe it's your psycho girlfriend DiNutso. Where is she anyway?"

"What did you just call her?" Tony asked in a dangerously low voice.

"You heard me. Where is she?"

Ziva chose that moment to come walking into the room and tension mounted even higher. She looked around and noticed Tony and agent slacks standing almost face to face looking like they were going to start fighting at any minute. Abby was watching a look of interest on her face and McGee looked like he was going to join Tony at any minute. Both Agent Sacks and Agent Smith's faces lit up when she walked into the room and the NCIS team actually winced. It was the wincing that clued her into the fact that they were talking about her.

"Oh Goody, you're here." Agent Sacks started in. "How did you hack into our computers?" His eyes actually lit up when he caught sight of the bruise on the side of her face. "Ah, did you and DiNutso get into a lovers quarrel?" he asked in a patronizing tone.

"Screw off Slacks." Tony all but hissed at the agent never taking his eyes off him.

Ziva walked over to Tony and put her hand on his shoulder. "It's fine Tony. Sit down."

"Ah, look she's protecting her big bad boyfriend. How cute." It only took a second for Ziva to be right in his face. Agent Sacks visibly gulped when he realized how close the assassin was.

"Is there a problem agent slacks?" Ziva asked somewhat harshly.

"How are you hacking our systems?"

Agent Smith walked over and placed his hand on her arm. "Maybe we should all calm down and take a seat." He said trying to diffuse the situation.

"I suggest you remove your hand from my arm." Ziva told him her eyes never leaving agent Sacks face.

"I really think we all just need to calm down." He said again this time running his hand up and down Ziva's arm.

It only took a second for her to loose it. She quickly grabbed his arm, twisting it behind his back and manoeuvred him down to the floor. Tony winced having been a victim of that particular move in the past and knowing just how painful it actually was.

"Perhaps the next time I suggest something you should take it as more of a warning." She muttered increasing the pressure just a little bit on his arm.

Tony could tell by the look on her face that she was upset about something and he was willing to bet that that the hand on her arm was just an excuse to do something physical. He decided to step in before she actually hurt the dumb agent.

"Sweet cheeks I don't think Gibbs will like it if you actually hurt the other team while were supposed to be doing paperwork."

"He rubbed my arm." She said in a somewhat dangerous tone of voice, Agent Sacks looking on with his mouth open.

"I saw that." Tony responded, "but I don't know that Gibbs will see that as a reasonable reason to actually hurt the guy."

Ziva finally looked up to see the amusement in Tony's eyes. She knew she had probably overreacted however it had felt good.

"Consider that a warning." She hissed to Agent Smith before letting go of his arm and heading over to the computer next to Tony.

Tony gave her a quick once over before handing her half the files on his desk. "I saved you some." He told her with a smile.

She rolled her eyes and took half the files before sitting down.

"How are you hacking our files?" Agent Moore finally growled again a look of sheer frustration on his face.

"You know," Abby spoke up from the back of the room. "I would think that if someone kept hacking into my files I would put up a firewall so that it couldn't keep happening." She offered in a helpful tone of voice.

The FBI narrowed their eyes at her. "Move." Agent Smith commanded getting up to head towards her computer.

"Ziva cleared her throat and tossed Agent Smith a look. The poor man nervously gulped and uttered a "please" to Abby before accessing her computer. Abby and Tony exchanged grins and his look of intimidation.

"It's not her." Agent Smith ground out completely frustrated by the entire morning. "This computer has nothing on it to show it's hacked anywhere in this room."

"It has to be them!" Agent Sacks muttered stalking over to the computer where Agent Smith was currently sitting.

Suddenly the door opened and Gibbs and Fornell came into the room.

"You boys having a paperwork party?" Gibbs asked the two FBI agents that were now staring at the computer in the back of the room.

"They're hacking into our files." Agent Sacks told Fornell while shooting a dirty look at the NCIS team.

"You have any proof to back up those accusations?" Gibbs asked taking a sip of the coffee that he had managed to acquire.

"No Sir." Agent Smith mumbled "They don't seem to have been hacked from inside this room."

"I see. So even though my entire team is sitting in this room, and your whatever was hacked from outside this room, you think they did it?" Gibbs asked in a monotone voice.

"Oh come on Gibbs." Fornell started. "You know your team did it. Who else would even bother?"

"I don't know Fornell; you have about as many enemies as I do." Gibbs calmly answered.

"All right we're done here." Fornell told him team. "Pack up and head out." The FBI quickly gathered up all their gear and headed out shooting glares at the NCIS team the entire way. As soon as they were gone Gibbs head slapped McGee.

"Ouch Boss what was that for?"

"Hacking there computers." Gibbs told him with a slight smile.

"It wasn't me!" He protested.

Everyone turned to look at Abby who had a slightly devious look on her face. "What?" She asked. "They called Tony DiNutso!" she said simply shrugging.

Gibbs just shook his head. Leave it to Abby. "You all done?" He asked the team gesturing to the paperwork.

"I'm finished mine." McGee quickly answered eager to get out of there.

"Suck up." Tony muttered

Gibbs turned to look at Tony and Ziva. "You can leave when you're done." He told them. "Lunch is at 1 today." He left the room with McGee and Abby following behind him.

"You couldn't have done this any faster?" Ziva asked incredulously not at all pleased with being left alone in a room with Tony.

"Sorry, he gave me twice as much as McGee." Tony told her somewhat irritated. "Besides you weren't even here for the first half of the morning, you can't possibly be complaining about having to do a little paperwork."

"If you had worked faster then I wouldn't have to do any." Ziva responded annoyance coloring her tone. "Now we will be stuck in here for who knows how long!"

They both sat down at their computers and worked on the paperwork for a while in silence, each trying to go as fast as humanly possible to get out of the room. Finally Tony just couldn't take the silence anymore.

"How was your session with Elsa?" he asked a note of curiosity in his voice.

"I do not want to talk about it." Ziva answered quickly.

"Oh come on, I'll tell you about mine if you tell me about yours."

"I do believe I said I did not want to talk about it Tony."

"Fine. I'll tell you about mine then." He opened his mouth to talk and then realized belatedly that he really didn't want to tell her that they had discussed that the accident wasn't his fault and that they discussed the kiss again.

"Dog got your tongue Tony?" Ziva asked with a smug smile at his pause.

"Cat, Cat got your tongue Ziva." He responded with a smirk. "And I've decided I don't want to talk about it either."

"Are you mocking me?" she asked him a smile still on her face.

"Well if you're too scared to talk about it, then I don't want to either." He told her not realizing that he was hitting an already tender spot.

"I am not scared." Ziva all but growled completely annoyed that he would pick that as the reason she didn't want to talk about it.

"Of course not." He said in a patronizing tone. "The big bad Mossad agent isn't scared of anything." Tony realized he was in trouble when she pushed back her chair and stood over him.

"I AM NOT SCARED." She hissed inches from his face.

"Fine." He told her a little uncertain what had set her off. He was always up for a good argument but he had no idea what this one was even about.

Ziva suddenly realized just how close she was to Tony. She wasn't scared. Why did people keep telling her she was scared?

Tony slowly stood up, not wanting to startle his partner and end up like Agent Smith had earlier in the day. Clearly she was upset about something and needed to get it out of her system.

"Look Ziva," he told her his hands raised in a peaceful gesture. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean anything by it."

They were still standing very closely together and something in Ziva finally snapped. She was tired of pretending, she didn't care about the consequences anymore. She reached up and pulled his head down until it was level with hers, she looked him in the eyes for a brief second before closing her own and crushing her lips to his.

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**A/N: Moo Ha Ha Ha! Evil laugh. To be continued in the next chapter.**

** -Kris**


	20. The Kiss

**A/N: Alright so fair warning...I've uped the rating to a T...and I'm bordering on an M here. There's some smut. This is also my shortest chapter so I hope you're not too disapointed! Hope you enjoy, keep those reviews coming! They're like drugs...I need more :)**

** -Kris**

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_They were still standing very closely together and something in Ziva finally snapped. She was tired of pretending, she didn't care about the consequences anymore. She reached up and pulled his head down until it was level with hers, she looked him in the eyes for a brief second before closing her own and crushing her lips to his._

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It took Tony a second or two to realize what was going on. The moment he did he wasted no time in becoming an active participant in the kiss. His brain vaguely tried to tell him that there was a good possibility that this was a bad idea. Like everything else in his life just when he got something good it would unravel with devastating consequences. He didn't care. He brought one hand up and wrapped it in her hair while his other hand went to her hip, anchoring her to him.

The kiss was hard and fierce and Tony could tell that for whatever reason Ziva was mad. He didn't want to be kissing mad Ziva. Perhaps it was selfish on his end, but he sure as heck didn't want this to break off and for her to be still mad. He quickly decided to take over and changed the pressure of his lips. He kept the touch of his lips feather light and almost tender and it took a moment for Ziva to respond to the change.

Ziva wasn't sure what was going on. One moment she had been standing there glaring at him and then she was kissing him. She had thought for a moment that he wasn't going to respond, that she had just blown everything by kissing him, but then his hands were in her hair and on her hip and he was just as involved as she was. She wasn't sure exactly when she had lost all the control, however she suddenly found herself involved in a kiss that was tender, and it almost brought tears to her eyes. She was no longer the aggressor and she decided to turn off her brain and let Tony take control.

He knew the moment she decided to let him have control of this kiss. He was honoured and a little humbled that she had conceded to letting him have control even if it was something as small as a kiss. (He was desperately trying not to think of how monumental this was in his own life.) He changed the angle before gently tracing her lips with his tongue asking for permission to enter. Her lips parted and his tongue slid in, gently tangling with hers, stroking and teasing, still keeping the pace tender and slow, wanting to learn everything about her before she decided that she'd had enough and broke away.

Ziva was in heaven. She had known he was a good kisser. (Their mission undercover had taught her that) however she hadn't realized that he was a devastating kisser. The moment she had relinquished control he had taken her to a place that she hadn't realized had even existed and she had completely lost control of herself. The slow thrust of his tongue in her mouth was driving her crazy, and she pressed herself more firmly against him where they stood. She brought her hands up, tangling them in his hair and she tried to get even closer almost wanting to crawl into him. She let out a soft moan, which he absorbed with his mouth, never taking his lips away from hers.

It was Ziva's moan that made his realize he needed air. He gently broke away and opened his eyes to look down at his partner. Her eyes were open and locked on his and her lips were swollen already. He belatedly realized that her hands were in his hair anchoring him to her and that she was pressed full against the length of his body. He was so not about to let this end now, even if she killed him later it would be worth it. He tossed her his famous grin and then sat down in his chair pulling her down to sit in his lap. As soon as he realized she wasn't fighting him he leaned in to place a light kiss on her lips, testing the waters to see if she was going to end this now. She kept her eyes open and on his for a second before leaning forward to firmly attach her lips to his and her eyes drifted closed. He wasted no time at re-inserting his tongue in her mouth and driving the kiss back up to where they had left off.

Ziva was pretty sure that this was either the dumbest or the greatest thing she had ever done. She was now straddling Tony's lap his tongue in her mouth and she wanted more. She had been aware that he had been asking permission when he had pulled her down to the chair, that simple act alone had shattered any of the remaining defences that had been in place. (Although if she were honest with herself, they had pretty much deflated anyway.) She brought her hands up to his chest and wiggled a little until she was pressed a little more firmly against him and then turned the tables inserting her tongue into his mouth for a change. She took back control of the kiss driving it a little bit deeper, making it more hot than tender and it wasn't long before it was Tony moaning.

He was dying. She was straddling him in the chair, pressed as closely as she could possibly get, her hands roaming his chest and her tongue was in his mouth. He knew they were going to have to end this soon. There was no way he was going to let their first time be in a chair in the library of a team building camp. He was loathed to break the contact however. He knew that as soon as this broke off that things were probably going to get awkward. He didn't want to go there. So he did the next best thing. He slid his hands under her shirt leaving them to lightly draw circles on her abdomen. He moved them slowly around, tracing patterns on her stomach and back waiting to see if she would protest him taking it to the next level.

Ziva let out a moan. Why was he moving so slowly? He was driving her crazy. She pulled back from the kiss for a moment to simply look at him. His eyes fluttered open with a look of masked disappointment and his hands started to drop. She quickly grabbed his hands and held them in place.

"You're diving me crazy Tony." She muttered breathlessly before pulling his shirt out of his pants and inserting her hands. She quickly fused their mouths again before rubbing his chest with her hands. She loved the feel of him.

Tony had been certain she was ending things and was pleasantly surprised to find she wasn't. The moment her hands were on his chest he wasted no time in returning the favour. He cupped her breasts in his hands and started gently kneading. Her back arched pressing her more firmly in his hands and she detached their mouths to throw her head back and moan. He took that as a good sign and started lightly tracing the lines of her bra under her shirt. He gave a brief thought that he would love to get rid of the shirt completely so that he could see her as well as feel her however it probably wasn't such a hot idea considering their current location.

It was then that things shot to pieces. The door of the library opened and a poor traumatized McGee entered the room. He took one look at the positioning of his co-workers and ran from the room eyes screwed shut. It was enough to shatter the passion induced haze they were both in and it took Ziva no time at all to hop up off of Tony, fix her clothes and bolt from the room.

Tony felt the loss immediately. He sat in the chair still stunned for a moment, before tucking his shirt back into his pants and brining his head down to rest on the table in front of him. What had they done? He was more then a little terrified knowing that he may have just ruined the best thing in his life by giving in to his sexual attraction for his partner. He was pretty sure it was one of the best encounters of his life and he wouldn't ever be able to look at this room the same again, but if Ziva was going to hate him for it then it wasn't worth it. He hit his head on the table and started thinking of all the ways he could possibly kill McGee.

Ziva ran from the room in a blind panic. What had she done? She was fairly certain she had just ruined everything. After all it was her fault. She knew better than to kiss Tony. He was a notorious womanizer. Of course he was going to kiss back. What was she thinking? How was she going to look him in the eyes again? She shook her head and headed outside. She was still buzzing from the make out session and needed to relieve some of the tension she was feeling. Hopefully a walk around the grounds would help. She groaned when she processed that it was McGee who had walked in on them, which meant that he would tell Abby. What had she done?

McGee was pretty sure he was going to be sick. There were some things in life you didn't need to see and that was probably number 1 on his list. Ok, number 2 because the thought of walking in on Gibbs was even worse. Sure, they had planned to hook them up but he never actually thought he would actually have to see anything. Now things were going to be all awkward and uncomfortably. He groaned, and they were going to want to kill him. He was doomed. There was no way this was going to end well for him. Maybe he should go see Elsa to see if she had any tips on getting unpleasant images from your head.


	21. Aftermath

Ziva was outside and half way across the grounds before it registered that someone was following her. She sighed. She really didn't need to deal with this now. All she really wanted to do was relive the kiss a little bit more before dwelling on the unpleasant aftermath. She quickly whirled and was more then a little surprised to see who was following her.

"Can I help you Agent Smith?"

"I certainly hope so." He said advancing to where she was standing, a weird look on his face.

"I suggest you stop." Ziva said, annoyance colouring her voice.

"I don't think so." He told her still advancing towards her.

Ziva rolled her eyes. She really didn't need this right now. The creep had the worst timing.

"You really might want to consider what you're doing." She told him the threat completely evident in her voice.

"I know what I'm doing." He told her a leer on his face. He was now standing directly in front of her and Ziva wasted no time in reaching out and grabbing his arm and flipping him onto his back.

"I told you that you might want to re-think what you were doing." She told him. It actually felt good to release some of her tension on the dumb agent now lying on the ground in front of her.

"Everything ok here?"

Ziva whipped her head up and groaned. She really didn't want to deal with McGee now. She just wanted to be alone. Was that really something so hard to accomplish?

"Everything is fine McGee. Agent Smith here was just heading back in, weren't you?" she asked directing her gaze to the agent on the ground.

"I was." He said getting back up and shooting both of them a glare. He stocked back towards the camp the two agents eyes on his back.

"I don't want to talk McGee." Ziva finally said not wasting any time at letting him know he was wasting his time.

"That's just too bad. Because I need to." McGee told her firmly.

Ziva was a little impressed. It hadn't been too long ago that the poor probie would have ran away if Ziva so much as hinted that she was annoyed with him. He really had come a long way from where he had been.

"What do you want McGee?" she sighed.

"I'm sorry." He stated. He started to squirm a little under her gaze.

"You have nothing to be sorry for." She finally told him. "If anything I should be apologizing to you."

"I came out here to tell you that I won't tell Abby if you don't want me to." He told her holding her gaze. "I know this is, uh, awkward, and if you don't want Abby to know then I completely understand."

Ziva smirked. "Do you really think that you could keep something like this from Abby? She has a seventh sense about these types of things yes?"

"Sixth sense, and if it bothers you then I can certainly try." He told her resolutely.

"It is not Abby I am worried about." She said with a small sigh.

"Well I can assure you that there is no way in Hell I'm having that conversation with Gibbs." He told her a look of panic on his face just at the thought.

Ziva chuckled. "I appreciate it." She told him. "I won't ask you to not tell Abby as I'm fairly confident that she would get it out of you eventually anyway."

"Thanks." He told her relieved.

"You want to talk about it?" he finally asked somewhat hesitantly. As much as he wanted to help Ziva he wasn't really sure that his stomach would handle the conversation.

"No." She shook her head. "I just need some time alone. I won't be in for lunch." She told him.

McGee nodded and started to head back inside. "I'll keep most of the details out of what I tell Abby." He called back to her.

"Thank you Tim." She called back before heading into the woods.

Tim headed back inside debating on what exactly he would tell Abby. Obviously he was going to have to tell her something, however since the image was still burned into his eyes every time he closed them, he decided that she didn't need that mental picture. He snorted, although knowing her she would probably enjoy it much more then he would. He gave a brief thought to going to help Tony with the paper work that he was now left doing on his own since Ziva had taken off and then quickly changed his mind. Tony wasn't as rational as Ziva and was probably plotting his death.

He took the elevator up to the girl's room and knocked on Abby's door.

"Timmy! I'm so glad it's you. I was getting bored waiting for lunch." Abby took one look at McGee's face and hauled him into her room. "What's wrong?" she asked him.

"From your perspective there's nothing wrong." He told her.

"What do you mean from my perspective? You look like you want to be sick."

"I walked in on Tony and Ziva." He told her.

"So?" she asked not getting what he was trying to tell her.

"Ugh! Are you going to make me actually say it?" He asked her sounding extremely frustrated. "I walked in on Tony and Ziva in a compromising position in the library Ok?"

Abby's eyes grew wide. "This is amazing!" She told him. "I need details."

"No. Uh uh, no way. I'm unfortunate enough to see it every time I close my eyes, I'm not vocalizing it. That would make it way worse."

"Fine. Come on." She said grabbing his arm and dragging him out the door.

"Abbs, where are we going?"

"To see Elsa obviously. Now's the best time. They're way too pre-occupied and lunch isn't for another hour."

"I really don't think this is a very good idea." He tried in a pathetic attempt to keep himself from being dragged to see Elsa.

"It's a great idea McGee. She needs to know so that she can talk them through it next time they have a session."

"If they find out I'm dead." He told her dragging his feet to delay the inevitable.

"Right. You walked in on a compromising situation and you think you're not already dead?" she asked him pressing the button on the elevator.

"As long as I avoid Tony." He told her not sounding very confidant. "Oh- Ziva took out Agent Smith." He told her trying to change the subject.

Abby's eyebrows rose. "Why?"

"Uh, I think he was being all creepy and stalkerish. When I went to talk to her outside he was lying on the ground with his arm behind him."

Abby rolled her eyes. "You would think that people would learn to leave assassins alone. Some people just aren't very bright." She muttered as she knocked on Elsa's door.

The door opened to reveal Elsa standing there. "Abby, Tim, it's good to see you. Please come in."

They walked in and grabbed seats on the couch before Abby just couldn't contain her excitement any longer.

"We've got news!" she exclaimed with glee.

Elsa looked over the two agents. Abby was practically bouncing in her seat she was so excited. Tim on the other hand, looked like he had swallowed something particularly unpleasant and wanted to be anywhere but where he was.

"What's your news Abby?" she asked the exuberant Goth.

"You tell her Tim." She said nudging his shoulder. He opened his mouth and closed it a few times before Abby laughed and said "You look like a fish."

Elsa instantly picked up on the fact that whatever it was it was clearly something that Tim was having issues talking about.

"Why don't you tell me?" she asked gesturing to Abby.

"Tim walked in on Tony and Ziva in a compromising situation." She said with glee. Elsa looked over to Tim who didn't look nearly as excited about the situation.

"They were doing their homework?" She asked the agent trying to get him to acknowledge what he saw.

"And then some." He muttered looking thoroughly disgusted.

"You didn't tell me that!" Abby gasped. "Now I really want details."

"I don't think details will be necessary Abby." Elsa said with a smile. "Poor Tim looks like he would really rather think about anything else."

"But it's not as fun without the details." Abby groaned. "Just a little one? Please Tim?" she begged turning to McGee and trying puppy dog eyes.

McGee groaned. He really needed to build up a better immunity to Abby's looks. He really didn't know which was worse, telling Abby no, or describing what he had walked into in the library. "Abby they deserve some privacy. Isn't it enough that we're in here plotting against them?"

"No." she pouted. "If I had walked in on them I would give you all the details."

"I wouldn't want them." He muttered and had Elsa grinning broadly.

"Abby, lets leave Tim alone. Perhaps he'll share some of the details with us later once he's had time to process what he's seen."

McGee's eyes screwed shut. "I don't want to process it." He insisted. "I want to forget it ever happened."

"You're no fun McGee." Abby muttered. "Just one teeny, tiny detail?"

"They were fully clothed." He sighed. "Now leave me alone about the details already."

Abby huffed. "Well that's no fun at all. We need them to take it to the no clothes level. How do we do that?" she asked turning to face Elsa.

"The fact that they've even done their homework suggests that they've already made great steps with their relationship." Elsa told them. "We don't want to make them move too fast or that would completely undo everything we're trying to do. Tim, once you interrupted what happened?"

McGee shrugged. "I'm not too sure. I closed my eyes and bolted out of the room. Shortly after I got out Ziva left. I followed her outside to see if she needed to talk to someone but she insisted she wanted to be left alone."

"And Tony?" Elsa asked.

"Uh, I don't really have a death wish, so I haven't seen him." McGee told her. "He's not known for taking these things in stride. In fact I bet I'm in for a pretty painful afternoon."

"He's right." Abby interjected. "Tony would want someone to blame and Tim would be the perfect target. It'll now be open season on Timmy torturing."

"Perhaps you can find a way to send them to see me and they can talk about it." Elsa suggested.

"Right, because that's gonna happen." McGee snorted. "No we're just going to have to put up with them being all angsty this afternoon."

Abby shrugged her shoulders. "It's true. Best we can do is wait this out until tomorrow." She looked down at her watch. "Crap McGee it's almost one. We need to go or they'll be suspicious." She quickly bolted up and headed for the door. "Thanks Elsa, we'll keep you updated!" she said as she quickly took off down the hall.

"Do you need to talk?" Elsa asked Tim knowing how uncomfortably this whole situation was for him. "I'm told I'm a good listener."

"I'm fine." He sighed and he headed towards the door. "I'm sure I can somehow block this all from my memory." He muttered as he followed Abby to lunch.

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**A/N: Who knew that all you had to do was write one smutty kiss and you could get like 50 reviews. Seriously, Where have you all been for the rest of the story? :) j/k**

**Here's a challenge for you...if I get 100 reviews on a chapter I'll write another one... :) Now lets see who the Tiva fans are...**

** -Kris**


	22. Lunch

Tony sighed. He wondered if Gibbs would kill him if he showed up for lunch not having finished the paperwork. His stomach growled and he stood up. He didn't care. He wanted food. He gave a metal wince at the thought of eating lunch with everybody (there was no way that Abby didn't know what had happened by now) however it couldn't be helped. He would have to face them at some point as it might as well be for lunch. Maybe he could figure out a way to get Ziva aside and see just how badly he had ruined things. He sighed again.

He made his way out of the library and headed towards the elevators at the end of the hall.

"That partner of yours is a real witch. I don't know how you stand her." Agent Smith growled at him as he got off the elevator.

Tony immediately saw red. "What did you just say?" he asked taking a step towards the other agent. He realized that he wanted nothing more then an excuse to hurt the man, then perhaps he could blow off some of the steam that had been building since Ziva had taken off. Heaven knew he couldn't blame McGee for having walked into a public library.

"I said your partner is a real witch!" Agent Smith muttered again as he was rubbing his shoulder.

Tony immediately reached out and slammed the agent hard into the wall. "Don't you EVER talk about her again."

"What are the rumours true then?" Agent Smith sneered. "Is agent DiNozzo doing his severely emotionally messed up partner? How cute."

Tony had had enough. He had pulled his arm back to throw a punch when someone rudely pulled him away. He whirled around, ready to attack whoever had pulled him off only to stop when he saw Gibbs standing behind him.

"Not worth it DiNozzo; walk away." He commanded.

"He insulted Ziva boss."

"I said walk away." Tony took a step back and Gibbs promptly got into the face of Agent Smith.

"If you ever talk about any of my agents again I won't stop DiNozzo. In fact I may just hold you down and let him have his way. Is that clear agent Smith?"

Agent Smith visible gulped clearly not used to having to deal with irate ex-marines.

"Yes Sir." He all but whimpered before Gibbs let him go and he scurried off down the hall.

Gibbs sighed and then turned to face his senior field agent. He had heard the entire conversation and wasn't surprised that Tony had been willing to deck the other agent. Under normal circumstances he may have even let him, however they needed to pass this stupid course and he had a sneaking suspicion that they would loose points for hitting a member of another agency.

"You finish your paperwork DiNozzo?"

"Ah, not really boss. Ziva kinda took off so I'm on my own in there."

"What did you do to her DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked with a sigh. He wasn't surprised that Ziva had ditched DiNozzo. There was only so much a person could take without cracking and he knew he had reached his own limit with the younger agent more then once.

"What makes you think it was my fault boss? Tony asked petulantly. "Maybe she's at fault for once."

"You better hope she never hears you say that, I won't be able to hold her back." Gibbs told him as they headed towards the elevator for lunch.

"Whatever. I'm not scared of the Ninja." Tony muttered. Gibbs just looked at him. "All right, I'm a little scared of the ninja." Tony conceded getting into the elevator. The ride down to the cafeteria was silent. Once they got there Abby was bouncing in her seat while McGee just shook his head at her.

"Something you want to tell us Abbs?" Gibbs asked noting the excited way Abby was carrying on. He noticed the panicked look that McGee tossed to Abby before briefly catching Tony's eyes and looking away. Interesting. He could only imagine what Abby was so excited about.

"Nope." She exclaimed giddily. "Nothing to tell. I just had a Red Bull since they don't have any Caf-Pow." She exclaimed.

Gibbs didn't believe her however he wasn't completely sure he wanted to know why Abby was so excited and why both of his male agents were looking so nervous.

"Where's Ziva." He asked starting to get a picture of what may have happened.

"She decided she wasn't hungry and went for a walk." McGee answered looking anywhere but at Tony.

Gibbs was not a stupid man and quickly figured out what had happened. It would explain Tony's rage at Agent Smith's comments and McGee's desperate act of looking anywhere but at Tony. It would also account for Ziva's absence and Abby's excitement. Rule 12 was shot to hell. He wearily resigned himself to the fact that the best partnership he'd ever seen (with the exception of Jenny and himself) was going to be completely awkward until they figured things out and sat down to eat his lunch. He sure as hell wasn't going to start asking questions. The less he knew the better off he would be. He only hoped it wouldn't affect their "Team building" exercises.

McGee allowed himself to relax a little as it seemed that Gibbs had bought Abby's explanation of why she was so hyper. He looked at his food as he started to eat. He could feel Tony's glare burning holes in his head and he started to eat faster. Perhaps he could avoid the conversation that would eventually lead to him confessing that he told Abby.

Tony was annoyed. He needed something to take his annoyance out on and settled for glaring at McGee. He naturally had known that the younger agent would share all with Abby, however he had hoped that just maybe it would have taken longer then the 30 seconds it had. He wondered where Ziva was and debated going after her.

Abby was excited. She watched as Tony glared at McGee and could barely contain the mirth she was suppressing. Tony and Ziva had finally caved in to their feelings for each other and now all they had to do was keep them together. It wouldn't be hard she was sure. They were totally in love with each other and all she had to do was make them realize it. She suddenly realized that Tony didn't know about Ziva's altercation with Agent Smith and decided that maybe this would be a good time to tell him.

"McGee." She started forcing him to bring his gaze to hers, "Tell Tony what happened with Ziva and Agent Smith."

McGee gulped. It did not go unnoticed by everyone at the table that Tony suddenly went rock still. "Ah, maybe now's not the time Abby." He tried.

"What Happened?" Tony ground out. McGee tossed a desperate look at Abby before looking over to Tony. It wasn't hard to see the barely contained rage simmering under the surface.

"Um, well I went outside to talk to Ziva and she had Agent Smith on the ground with his arm twisted under him." McGee stuttered.

For the second time that day Tony saw red. He knew Ziva could handle herself. He had witnessed it on more then one occasion. He had even been the victim of numerous pain inflicting tactics however the rage that consumed him was intense. She should not have had to beat off Agent Smith. This was his fault for not being there. He stood up.

"She's fine Tony." McGee quickly assured him. He didn't like the look on Tony's face. He was still very still which was completely out of character for him.

"Sit down DiNozzo she can take care of herself." Gibbs finally commanded. He didn't like the look on the younger agent's face. He was just as pissed off as Tony was that Agent Smith had pulled something on Ziva and he had every intention of dealing with it however he wasn't going to let Tony go off in the mood he was currently in. If he accidently encountered Agent Smith on his way to Ziva there was no telling what he would do to the man.

It was Gibbs command that snapped Tony out of the rage he was in. "With all due respect Boss I would like to go find my partner."

"She had him on the ground DiNozzo. McGee just told us she's fine. You can see her when the rest of us do at the next team building activity."

Tony sat back down with a sigh. There was no arguing with Gibbs once he had his mind set and logically he knew Ziva was fine. That didn't stop him from wanting to pulverize Agent Smith however. He had better hope that he wasn't alone the next time he walked into Tony.

Abby looked around the table at the tense faces around her and rolled her eyes. It was cute that Tony was so concerned but really, did they honestly think that Ziva needed them to protect her? She snorted completely amused with all of them. Just wait until she told Ziva about this!

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**A/N: All right, sorry this chapter was so short! I've been super busy and haven't had a chance to sit down in write in ages!!! That being said, I wasn't holding you all hostage for another chapter...I was talking about another Kiss. :) Which I will be writting as the review count came in at 101. CRAZY! I didn't actually think you would do it...nor as it appears did many others. You seemed to think it was too high, shows what you know :) j/k**

** Man- I want to thank you all for your reviews and your loyalty to my little story. I really appreciate that you're all sticking in there even though I'm only updating every couple of weeks! I continue to be amazed at how many people are actually reading this! It's completely insane! **

** Thanks Again -Kris-**


	23. Balloons

Ziva looked down at her watch and noticed the time. She gave a brief sigh before turning around and heading back for the lodge. The last thing she wanted to do was go to some stupid team building exercise where she would probably have to face Tony. With her luck she wouldn't just have to face him but she's end up tied to him face to face or something equally as trying. It wasn't that she minded being with Tony. In fact it was the complete opposite. How on earth was she supposed to get anything done with the memory of that kiss burning in her head?

She decided that since she was already late she should probably pick up her pace and broke into a brisk jog. Gibbs would kill her if she wasn't on time and she didn't need that to add to her stress as well. She made it back to the lodge in record time and went to the main "team building" room as she was now calling it in her head. She winced when she saw that everyone had beaten her there.

Tony let out a sigh of relief when Ziva finally arrived. He knew she could take care of herself. He had first hand knowledge of the fact. However he couldn't help but worry when she was outside completely alone with that Stupid FBI agent stalking her. Not to mention the fact that it was his fault she was outside in the first place. If he hadn't of kissed her she wouldn't have ran off. "You ok?" he finally asked when she walked up to them and wouldn't meet his eyes.

"I am fine." She answered not looking him in the eye. "I'm sorry I'm late." She muttered to Gibbs.

"You're not late." He responded in his usual gruff manor. "You take care of Agent Smith?" he asked the concern showing in his eyes.

Ziva huffed. "I am fine. He is annoying however he is completely without harm. He's more stupid then dangerous."

"No more wandering off alone." Gibbs told her.

"This is completely ridiculous!" she muttered throwing her hands in the air. "Tony please tell him I can take care of myself." She asked whirling to look at Tony.

Tony was immensely relieved that she was finally looking him in the eyes. Even if it was just because she was mad at someone else. He took another look at the bruise on her face and inwardly winced.

"Sorry Ziva." He told her putting his hands out in a placating manor. "I know you can take care of yourself but lately trouble seems to be seeking you out."

Ziva allowed herself a brief flashback of their heated kiss and then compartmentalized it for later. She could do her job and not think about it constantly. She looked into his concerned gaze and it popped back in. Maybe she could compartmentalize. She mentally shook her head and then narrowed her gaze. "Trouble seems to be seeking me out lately?" she asked incredulously. "Perhaps we should hire a full time body guard for you then Tony."

McGee watched the back and forth with amusement. Things were much less awkward then he had thought they were going to be. Perhaps they would just go back to the continual fighting and they wouldn't have to deal with longing looks and avoided gazes. He could handle fighting. Heck, they were all used to that. He looked over to Abby with a grin.

"What are you grinning at McGeek?" Tony suddenly snarled. "Do you think Ziva should just be running around by herself all the time with that agent Smith skulking around?"

"He is no threat Tony." Ziva hissed.

"Time out." Gibbs suddenly yelled. "We're about to go into yet another 'team building' exercise and I need you to start acting like a team. I don't know what your personal issues are and I don't care. Ziva you will not be hanging out alone. DiNozzo wipe that smirk off your face or I won't say anything when she hurts you. Get in there now!" he said loudly causing all his agents to quickly file into the room.

A loud groan was audibly issued once the NCIS agents walked into the room to find the FBI already in there.

"You have got to be kidding me." Tony whined. "Wasn't spending the morning with them enough."

"Agent Smith will be favouring his right arm." Ziva said to the team and was somewhat gratified when Tony smirked back at her.

"Good Afternoon Teams." Mary suddenly called out walking into the room. Tony smothered a snicker at the look of disgust on Gibbs face and the perkiness of their host.

"I have another fun filled team activity for you this afternoon."

"This better not include being tied up." McGee muttered under his breath and had the team looking at him with a smile.

"We're going to be playing some Balloon games today." Mary said with a giant smile ignoring the groans coming from both teams. "Balloons are a great way to foster strong teams." She said nodding her head as if it were the secret to the universe.

"She can not be serious." Ziva muttered a look of horror on her face. "If Mossad were to see this it would not be pretty."

"What? Ninja's don't play with balloons?" Tony teased completely enjoying the death look shot his way for his efforts.

"Do any adults willing play with balloons?" she tossed back miffed with the situation they now found themselves in.

"Well, there's clowns. They like balloons…" Tony started before Gibbs head slapped him. "Right boss, no one likes balloons." Tony muttered with a wince.

"Our first game doesn't have a name." Mary started as if everyone were hanging on her every word and not intently wishing they were anywhere but there. "I'm going to give you all a balloon and a piece of sting. I want you to blow up you balloon and then tie it to your ankle with the string. You're all going to have to try and pop each other's balloons without touching each other." She said with a smile. "It's harder then it looks."

"She needs a real job." Tony muttered after accepting his balloon and string somewhat ungraciously."

"I think it sounds like fun!" Abby exclaimed before huffing into her balloon.

McGee simply rolled his eyes after accepting his game pieces and proceeded to blow up his balloon.

Ziva held onto her balloon as if it would contaminate her with deadly germs. She tossed a desperate look at Gibbs who shrugged his shoulder and started on his own balloon.

"It's not going to kill you Ziva." Abby said rolling her eyes and grabbing the offending piece of rubber from Ziva. "There's a trick to it." She told her before blowing Ziva's balloon up as large as she could. "It's completely full, so it will pop quickly and you'll be out of the game." She told her with a wink.

"No way." Gibbs said grabbing Ziva's balloon from Abby. "We need her in this if we're going to win." He quickly walked up to Mary and grabbed a new balloon filling it up only partially. "Here tie this to your ankle." He told her gruffly before bending down to secure his own balloon to his ankle.

"Where's a camera when you need one." Abby said watching with awe as Gibbs tied a balloon to his ankle. "This could go on my wall of fame." Gibbs with a balloon tied to his ankle. Ducky will never believe this!"

"Ducky isn't going to hear about it." He told her forcefully. "David secure that to you ankle now." He told her with a light head smack that made DiNozzo and McGee smile.

McGee couldn't help but chuckle. It was rare that Ziva got head slaps and to have one over a balloon, well it was pretty priceless. His chuckle died off quickly however at the look Ziva shot him.

"Is everyone ready?" Mary finally called out. "The winner is the team that has an agent in at the end. You've lost when all your team members no longer have balloons." She told them. "And you must stay in the lines." She inserted gesturing to a blue square that was marked on the floor. "On your mark, get set, Go!"

Nobody moved. Everyone simply stared at each other within the blue outline.

"Oh for crying out loud." Abby finally said and then rushed over to Fornell and stamped on his balloon as everyone looked on somewhat incredulously. The resounding pop spurned everyone into action.

The FBI now one player short all rushed Abby as team NCIS rushed to her defence. Much to everyone's surprise Abby was a natural and quickly popped Agent Johnson's balloon causing the other agents to back off somewhat quickly. Agent Sacks took advantage of the momentary confusion and quickly popped Tony's balloon causing him to be the first of team NCIS to be out of the game.

"Oh look, I popped Agent DiNutso's balloon." He taunted as Tony headed out to sit on the sidelines.

"Yeah Slacks, You're a real man." Tony taunted back causing Agent Sacks to be somewhat distracted as Ziva snuck in and popped his balloon.

The pop caused Sacks to whirl around and face Ziva. "That's cheating." He told her in a low voice. "Not that I expect anything better from you and your boyfriend."

Surprisingly it was Fornell that answered. "That's not cheating you idiot that's strategy. You're just bitter they got the best of you again, now get out of there." He yelled frustration clearly evident in his voice that NCIS was beating them at a stupid children's party game.

Ziva quickly shot a grin to Tony and then quickly whirled around to find Agent Smith standing directly behind her. She sighed audibly. "I thought I told you to stay away from me." She said as another pop was heard and McGee headed over to Tony's side somewhat dejectedly.

"It's a game Ziva." He told her with an odd look on his face. "I'm supposed to be trying to pop your balloon. He said with a leer.

"You must be childing me." She answered.

"Kidding Ziva, the expression is you must be kidding me." Tony called from where he watched at the sidelines a scowl on his face.

"Whatever." She said. "Go away." She told agent Smith who was now hovering more closely then she would like. "If you do not back away I will not be responsible for what I may do to you." She told him rolling her eyes.

It was then that Gibbs made his move. Having left Abby to duke it out with Agent Moore Gibbs quietly and stealthily made his move on Agent Smith. As Agent Smith was so intent on staring at Ziva he didn't hear his team mates calling out to him and by then it was too late. Gibbs rushed in and crushed his balloon causing a loud cheer from DiNozzo and a large smirk from Ziva.

As one they both then turned to where Agent Moore had somehow managed to corner poor Abby and rushing to her rescue distracted him enough to allow Abby the winning balloon pop. The game was over.

"Congratulations team NCIS!" Mary called out. "You've won the first round!"

"First round?" Gibbs and Fornell asked in tandem.

"Absolutely!" she told them her ever present smile firmly in place. "The best to three wins."

The three games were completed fairly quickly, much to the disgust of the FBI team NCIS managed to win all 3.

Mary quickly suggested a game of water balloon volleyball which Gibbs and Fornell were able to talk their way out of much to the gratitude of both teams. As horrible as the first game had been neither team was willing to subject themselves to water balloon volleyball.

"All right, we're done with this stuff for the day." Gibbs finally told his team. "Fornell and I are heading out. Remember what I said, Ziva no going off alone and none of you are to leave the resort."

"I wouldn't call this much of a resort." Tony muttered under his breath and got an elbow to the ribs from Ziva for his trouble.

"Well McGee and I are going to watch some movies aren't we McGee." Abby told them a smile in place.

"A yeah, sure." A baffled McGee answered a little confused as to his sudden plans.

"That's great Abbs, I love movies!" Tony quickly answered not really wanting to be left alone with Ziva. The kiss was still too vivid in his memory (not that he really expected it to ever die) and he really wasn't sure where she stood on the whole topic.

"Sorry Tony." She cheerfully told him. "You guys aren't invited. You'll just have to entertain yourselves tonight." She said before grabbing McGee's arm and walking off.

Tony turned to face Ziva and noticed that she once again wouldn't meet his eyes. He sighed causing her to look up. "Well I guess we better talk then." He told her not at all relishing where this was going to go. He was terrified she was going to tell him it was all a giant mistake.

Ziva noticed the apprehension in his eyes and inwardly cursed herself. This was her fault. "Yes Tony, I guess we had better talk." She told him and they headed off towards the elevators awkward silence firmly in place.

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**A/N: I know, I know, it's been freakin forever! (And i've heard that from many of you!) However as you can see I haven't given up on the story...I've just had other stuff to do! (And yes I do know how annoying it is to wait for a story you really love to update!) Hopefully I'll be able to update quicker then my last....if it's too long you can always send me one of those message things...anyway I hope you're still enjoying!**

** -Kris**


	24. Talking

_Tony turned to face Ziva and noticed that she once again wouldn't meet his eyes. He sighed causing her to look up. "Well I guess we better talk then." He told her not at all relishing where this was going to go. He was terrified she was going to tell him it was all a giant mistake._

_Ziva noticed the apprehension in his eyes and inwardly cursed herself. This was her fault. "Yes Tony, I guess we had better talk." She told him and they headed off towards the elevators awkward silence firmly in place._

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The ride up in the elevators was more awkward then any encounter the partners had had to date. Both were blaming themselves and neither was sure where they stood. The memory of the kiss was like a great wall between them, driving a wedge that they'd never experienced before.

Ziva couldn't take any more and quickly reached out to hit the emergency stop on the elevator. Unsurprisingly the elevator shuddered to a stop and the lights went out plunging the two agents into darkness. Not even an emergency light came on and it took a few minutes for their eyes to adjust to the dark. Slowly they turned to face each other, keeping a respectable distance between them.

"Really Ziva? The elevator? It would have only been a couple of minutes to get to our rooms." Tony said with a sigh.

"I am sorry Tony." Ziva said quietly not looking him in the eye.

Tony was quickly thrown off balance. He had not expected an apology. After all, it was his fault and ninjas were not known for their ability to show weakness. "For what?"

Ziva looked up at Tony and noted the look of confusion on his face. Her heart dropped. She knew it hadn't meant anything more to him then a kiss. He kissed women all the time. She didn't know why she was so disappointed. "For kissing you. It was inappropriate and I should have stopped myself."

"You sorry for kissing me?" He asked the disappointment clearly evident in his voice.

Ziva took a step closer so she could see his eyes better. She mentally cursed herself for doing this in the elevator. It was so much easier to read him when she could see his eyes. She could hear the disappointment in his voice and wasn't sure how to take it. Was it possible that he was as involved as she was?

"Are you not sorry then Tony?" she asked quietly.

He let out an audible sigh. "Am I sorry that we kissed? Hell no, it was one of the best experiences of my life. Am I sorry that you're sorry, and that I've completely messed things up? Absolutely. You're my best friend. As much as I've wanted to kiss you for a long time now I had no intentions of ruining-"

He found himself suddenly cut off when Ziva jumped him. For the second time that day he found himself completely stunned and was wondering what the heck had happened.

Ziva realized he wasn't responding and quickly pulled away shame and embarrassment colouring her cheeks. Clearly she was misreading him and she quickly retreated into the corner of the elevator.

Tony's mind caught up with his actions just as soon as she stepped away and he cursed himself when he saw Ziva retreat into the corner.

"Something you want to tell me sweetcheeks?" he asked his voice somewhat huskier then usual.

"I'm sorry." She whispered not looking him in the eyes.

"Damn it Ziva, stop saying that." Tony finally yelled frustrated at the turn of conversation. "You don't have anything to be sorry about. I kissed you back remember."

Ziva's head whipped up so that her eyes could meet his and she suddenly found temper whipping through her blood. "Do not yell at me." She hissed eyes narrowing.

Tony noted with satisfaction that yelling at her had finally gotten her to look at him. He was by no means above using a fight to get her to talk to him. With their experience it was fighting that got them to confess too much. "I'll yell if I want to yell. What am I supposed to do? Twice in one day I find my hot sexy partner throwing herself at me and now here she is apologizing for something that I thoroughly enjoyed. Why do you keep kissing me if you're so freaking sorry?" he yelled as his stalked towards her in the corner. He found himself angrier then he had realized. He wanted her to stop apologizing, or at least explain why she kept kissing him. He couldn't deal with her messing with him. Not her. Never her.

Ziva watched at he stalked towards her and upped the notch on her voice to match his. "I'm apologizing because clearly kissing you was a mistake Tony. I'm nothing more then another bloozy to you, you couldn't even bring yourself to kiss me back the last time." She yelled.

A light bulb went off in Tony's brain and he registered what was going on. A huge smile lit his face. "It's bimbo or floozy Ziva." He said his voice back to normal pitch. "And you could never be either one of those. You're my best friend and I care about you. As far as not kissing you back you didn't give me a chance. And I want one. I want you. I want a relationship. Is that clear enough for you? You can't keep kissing me if you don't want those things too." He told her his voice now soft. "I wouldn't be able to take it."

Ziva felt her temper drain away as she looked at the earnest expression on his face. She hadn't expected to hear that from him. Ever. It scarred her a little bit. In all her wildest fantasy's she had never really ever expected him to feel the same way she did. And the fact that he did was wildly thrilling and terrifying all at the same time. Suddenly she knew that she wanted to try. Not having him in her life, or having him there and constantly with someone else was not an option. She took a step towards him.

Tony watched as she took a step closer and registered that there was only a small amount of space between them now. He was mildly uncomfortable that he had confessed to her. Vulnerability was not something he was particularly fond of. Her step towards him though seemed to be positive. He licked his lips. "If you don't want this, back away." He whispered and noted with satisfaction as her eyes traced the movements of his tongue. Slowly he started to lean down towards her and felt relief at her smile as she started to lean up.

It started off slow. A gradual meeting of lips, feather light as they tentatively brushed against each other. They both knew where this was going and found themselves in no hurry to get there. Both were almost giddy with relief. They wanted the same thing and that knowledge alone made the kiss that much sweeter.

Suddenly the lights came on and the elevator started to move. They pulled away from each other sharing a look of dazed pleasure and quickly took a step away from each other as the elevator doors opened.

"I should have known." Fornell muttered as the doors opened to reveal him and Gibbs standing there. "It would be your team to stop the elevator."

Tony quickly stepped out with Ziva and was completely unsurprised when Gibbs delivered a hard head slap to both of them.

"Ouch boss, what was that for?" he whined.

"Do I need a reason DiNozzo?" Gibbs growled shooting the younger agent a glare.

"Um no boss." DiNozzo muttered to a retreating back as Gibbs and Fornell stepped into the elevator.

"Keep it out of the office" Gibbs shouted out as the elevator doors closed.

Tony turned towards Ziva with a stunned look on his face. "How does he know these things?" he asked.

Ziva smirked back at her partner, completely at ease now that they had resolved their issues. "He is Gibbs." She simply shrugged.

Tony snorted. "It takes a ninja to understand a ninja." He muttered a smile creeping up on his face. "You know you're beautiful right?" he asked reaching out to toy with the ends of her hair.

Ziva had the grace to look uncomfortable for a moment however didn't stop him from playing with her hair.

"No more then you." She finally responded unsure how to respond to a sincere compliment.

Tony grinned then threw his arm around her shoulders. "Wanna go make out?" He asked playfully as he lead the way to their rooms.

Ziva jokingly jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow. "I don't know." She told him. "How many people will hear about it later?" she asked with a smirk in her voice.

"No one that you don't want to know." He responded seriously. "I meant what I said in the elevator."

Ziva stopped to look up at her partner. "I know." She whispered. "I want the same things."

They paused to just look at each other for another minute before Tony issued his infamous grin. "Then lets go make out." He said grabbing her hand and heading off for their rooms in a quick pace.

Ziva just laughed as she felt herself being dragged along with him. Sometimes he had the right idea.

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**A/N: What? I can hear you all thinking...you're still alive??? The answer is yes. I am still alive. I want to thank you all for sticking with me even though it seems I had dropped off the face of the planet. Your reviews and messages did not go unnoticed. I appreciate all of them. I'm going to try and update a bit more often, however I'm not going to promise :) **

**Sorry this chapter was short- but after this long a wait I figured better short then none at all. I'm a little sure where to take the story after this so why don't you send some reviews with what you would like to see happen and we'll see in which direction the story goes :)**


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